The Moscow Times, Russia
Feb 20 2008

Exit Polls Point to Victory for Sarksyan

By Hasmik Lazarian and Margarita Antidze
Reuters

YEREVAN, Armenia — Prime Minister Serzh Sarksyan won Armenia’s
presidential election in the first round, an exit poll showed on
Tuesday, but the opposition said voting was marred by beatings and
ballot-stuffing.

Most observers say Sarksyan would pursue policies followed by
President Robert Kocharyan during his decade in office. Poor and
landlocked, Armenia relies heavily on a long-standing alliance with
Moscow.

Sarksyan won 57 percent of the vote, way ahead of his nearest
opposition challenger, former President Levon Ter-Petrosyan,
according to an exit poll by Britain’s Populus pollster for Armenian
public television.

Populus said Ter-Petrosyan scored 17.04 percent.

But Ter-Petrosyan’s campaign office said staff had been beaten and
even kidnapped at polling stations and vowed to hold a protest rally
in Yerevan on Wednesday, opening the specter of mass protests that
have followed previous elections.

Polling stations closed at 8 p.m. in the mountainous, impoverished
country of 3.2 million people, and the first official results were
expected on Wednesday.

Armenia is squeezed between Turkey and Azerbaijan in a region that is
emerging as an important transit route for oil exports from the
Caspian Sea to European and world markets.

Misha Japaridze / AP
Serzh Sarksyan

Sarksyan, after voting in a Yerevan school, said the priority was for
Armenia to conduct a free and fair election.

"It’s not important whether the election will be held in one or two
rounds. The most important point is that our election be
trustworthy," Sarksyan said. The top two candidates will contest a
runoff if no one tops 50 percent in the first round vote.

The rest of the field is led by former speaker of parliament Artur
Baghdasaryan, as well as Ter-Petrosyan, a former president who was
forced to resign in 1998 and is now seeking a comeback.

"I’m confident that I’ll win in the first round … I’ve voted for
freedom," Ter-Petrosyan said after casting his ballot.

"There are some ‘dirty things’ already going on," he said, but
declined to give details on specific cases.

Previous elections in Armenia have been followed by mass opposition
protests alleging ballot fraud.

Misha Japaridze / AP
Levon Ter-Petrosian

Baghdasaryan also said there had been violations. "There is absolute
chaos at one polling station in Yerevan … which is impeding the
voting process," said a spokeswoman for his campaign.

"At another polling station people were distributing ballots that
were already filled in favor of one candidate."

Kocharyan, 53, is barred by the constitution from serving a third
consecutive term. He is expected to remain influential but has
refused to disclose what role he wants until his replacement is
inaugurated.

"I think no one has any doubt about whom I would be voting for. I
voted for stability and prosperity in Armenia," Kocharyan said, after
casting a ballot at the same polling station as his prime minister.

"I voted for Sarksyan because I don’t want Armenia to be plunged into
chaos again," said Khachatur Babayan, 63, a doctor. Many Armenians
associate Ter-Petrosyan’s time in office with economic meltdown and
power blackouts.

But others said they wanted change.

"I think that Levon Ter-Petrosyan will be able to help people, to
make our country really prosperous," said schoolteacher Hasmik
Hovannesyan, 54, as she cast her ballot.

Armenia is still officially at war with Azerbaijan over the breakaway
region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Yerevan has frosty relations with Turkey,
in part because of a bitter dispute over the killing of Armenians by
Ottoman Turks during World War I.

Armenia at a Glance

Population: 3.22 million as of January 2007, according to the
National Statistics Service.Ethnic Composition: More than 97 percent
of the population is Armenian. There are small minorities of
Russians, Kurds and Greeks.Geography: Landlocked, bordering
Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran and Turkey, with a total area of 29,800
square kilometers.Language: Armenian is the official language.
Russian and Kurdish are also spoken. Armenian belongs to a branch of
the Indo-European family of languages and has a unique 39-character
script.
Religion: Most Armenians belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church, an
ancient, independent branch of Christianity. Armenia was the first
country in the world to adopt Christianity as its state religion, in
301.
Economy: Armenia’s gross domestic product grew 13.7 percent in 2007,
and annual inflation was 6.6 percent. Armenia joined the World Trade
Organization in January 2003. Its national currency is the dram.
Key Industries: Agriculture, textiles, food processing, construction
materials, diamond cutting, mining and chemicals are all major
industries. Gold and molybdenum, a metal used to toughen steel, are
mined, mainly for export.
History: Armenia says 1.5 million ethnic Armenians were killed in
what it calls a genocide by Ottoman Turks in 1915-23. Turkey denies
that the killings were a genocide. It says the Armenians were victims
of a partisan war that also claimed many Muslim Turkish lives.An
independent Armenian state existed from 1918 to 1921 but was
swallowed up by Communist Russia in 1921, later becoming a republic
of the Soviet Union, and once more gaining independence in 1991.As
the Soviet Union disintegrated, Armenia became involved in a conflict
with neighboring Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. About
35,000 people died in the conflict; hundreds of thousands fled. Most
have been unable to return to the territory, which is part of
Azerbaijan but has been controlled by Armenian forces since the
fighting.