Earthtimes, UK
Feb 19 2008

EXTRA: Armenian exit polls point to first round win for Sarkisian
Posted : Tue, 19 Feb 2008 17:32:01 GMT
Author : DPA

Yerevan, Armenia – Armenia Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian, the
preferred successor of incumbent President Robert Kocharian, led with
57.1 per cent in the first exit polls released by British pollster
Populus two hours after the close of voting in the post- Soviet
state’s presidential elections Tuesday. According to initial results
by the Populus poll, Sarkisian comfortably passed the 50-per-cent
barrier needed to carry home the elections in the first round of
voting.

His fiercest challenger, former president Levon Ter-Petrosian, said
the poll had been commissioned and accused the government of "mass
bribing, ballot stuffing, (and) voting list falsifications" before
the close of voting at 8 pm (1600 GMT) Tuesday.

"Populus has nothing to do with the reality. It is totally under the
control of the government," Ter-Petrosian’s spokesman Arman Musinyan
told Deutsche Presse-Agentur