Pro-presidential parties set to win Armenia vote
13 May 2007 11:24:19 GMT
Source: Reuters

By Margarita Antidze

YEREVAN, May 13 (Reuters) – Pro-presidential parties have won a large
majority in Armenia’s parliamentary elections, the country’s election
commission said on Sunday, a vote Western monitors described as a vast
democratic improvement.

The expected winner in the election — viewed as a dress rehearsal for
the presidential vote next year — is Prime Minister Serzh Sarksyan
who heads the Republican party, which is projected to win around 40
percent of the vote.

Sarksyan is a 52-year-old former welder and a trusted lieutenant of
Armenia’s President Robert Kocharyan who steps down as leader next
year. He has said he would enter a presidential election if his party
asked him to.

"We were not expecting to get more than 50 percent of the vote as we
had worthy opponents," Armen Ashotyan, a Republican member of
parliament, told Reuters. "We are satisfied."

The Republican party’s two allies have polled around 35 percent
together, the election commission said.

Former Soviet Armenia is Russia’s main ally in the Caucasus, nestling
on the southern edge of the region which has emerged as a major
transit route for oil from Central Asia to Europe, and also borders
Turkey and Iran.

International observers had urged it to improve the fairness of its
parliamentary elections, saying the 2003 vote fell well short of
democratic standards.

Sarksyan had also pushed for improvements and at a news briefing on
Sunday Western monitors said standards had risen.

"The Armenian elections were an improvement from previous elections,"
said Tone Tingsgaard, from the Organisation for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) monitoring team.

"Some issues remain and more is needed to consolidate this democracy."

Observers highlighted the close relationship between businesses and
politicians as a concern and an inadequate electoral complaints
procedure. One of the pro-presidential parties is run by a millionaire
businessman.

A fringe opposition group which wants to start proceedings to impeach
the president, because its says he has failed the country with his
policies, is not expected to win enough votes to clear the 5 percent
barrier and enter parliament.

Nikol Pashinyan, one of the leaders of the Impeachment party, said
there had been voting violations and he promised street
demonstrations.

"We do not recognise the result of the election and our struggle will
shift to another stage," he said.

Impeachment supporters and police had clashed in the election run up
but on Sunday the streets of Armenia’s capital were quiet. Impeachment
has a few thousand supporters.

Simmering tensions burst to the surface last month when gunmen tried
to kill a senior member of the Republican party and two blasts ripped
through the offices of another pro-presidential party.

The violence has revived memories of a 1999 shootout in parliament
that killed the speaker and the prime minister. (Additional reporting
by Hasmik Lazarian)