PRESS TV, Iran
May 13 2007

Republican Party wins Armenia polls
Sun, 13 May 2007 20:50:39

Armenia’s Republican Party of Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian has won
the most seats in parliamentary elections with 39.2 percent of the
votes.

The Prosperous Armenia Party tool 14.7 per cent and came after the
Republican Party.

More than 2 million Armenians voted May 12 in Armenia’s fourth
elections since the South Caucasus country gained independence in
1991, with twenty-two parties and one election bloc running for 131
seats in the parliament.

The opposition party claimed there have ballot rigging in many areas,
but the western observers believed that the poll was fair comparing
to the previous elections in Former Soviet Union.

The Armenia Revolutionary party known as the third strongest
political party took 12.8 per cent of the votes, and the former
parliament chairman Arthur Baghdasarian’s party received 6.9 per cent
of the votes.

Thousands of opposition supporters went to the streets of Yerevan
before the polling Saturday to object possible electoral
irregularities.

The Armenian president threatened to use force to prevent mass
protests and a change of power as was the case in Georgia and the
Ukraine.