Earthtimes, UK
Feb 19 2008

Voting ends in Armenian presidential election – Summary
Posted : Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:15:08 GMT
Author : DPA

Yerevan, Armenia – Voting ended in Armenia’s presidential elections
Tuesday that are expected to go to Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian,
the preferred successor of incumbent Robert Kocharian, amid
opposition allegations of widespread vote-rigging. Forty minutes
before the close of voting at 8 pm (1600 GMT) in the small
post-Soviet republic turnout was reported to be a high 57.14 per
cent, according to the Central Election Commission.

Analysts said that while Sarkisian, 53, led in pre-election surveys,
there were strong doubts about whether he would garner the more than
50 per cent needed to win a first round outright.

The frontrunner’s fiercest challenger, former president Levon Ter-
Petrosian, 63, meanwhile accused the government of "mass bribing,
ballot stuffing, voting list falsifications" among a slew of
violations, including the beating and kidnapping of his supporters.

"Many dirty things are happening. There have been many concrete
violations," the former president told journalists after casting his
ballot Tuesday.

"This is the last convulsion of a dying power, but it will not help:
We will show proof of violations," Ter-Petrossian spokesman Arman
Musinyan told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Ter-Petrosian had already called a mass meeting "to celebrate his
true victory" Wednesday afternoon, raising fears of post-election
unrest in the streets.

The opposition candidate’s final campaign rally Saturday drew a crowd
of about 30,000 to the capital Yerevan’s theatre square.

The elections in Armenia, a landlocked state nestled high in the
Caucasus Mountains, were seen as much as a judgment of outgoing
President Kocharian’s decade at the helm as a question mark over the
state’s future foreign policy direction.

Armenia has emerged as a strategically important region, lying as it
does along gas routes from the energy-rich Caspian Sea region to
Europe and being a close partner of Iran. Western powers fear
instability in the region could disrupt gas routes.

Facing blockades along two of its borders over a territorial conflict
with Azerbaijan, and with Turkey angered by Yerevan’s lobbying for
international recognition of the killings of Armenians by the Turkish
Ottoman Empire as genocide, Armenia is reliant both on Western aid
and on economic ties to Russia.

Moscow, which has a firm hold, including a military base, in the
post-Soviet state, has tacitly lent its backing to the current
leadership.

A current construction boom and steady growth in recent years speak
for the powerful prime minister, whose Republican Party of Armenia
swept recent parliamentary elections in the country.

Speaking to journalists after casting his ballot Tuesday, Sarkisian
said, "The government was formed nine months ago and we have since
then achieved good results. I do not know of any need for essential
changes."

President Kocharian, who voted minutes before at the same polling
station, said: "I voted for the stability and growth of Armenia."

His words were echoed by voters outside polling stations in the
capital on Tuesday.

Vladimir, a 75-year-old pensioner, said simply he was voting to "keep
the old power, to keep stability," while Arar, an architect in his
30s, pointed to cranes towering over the street: "The country is
growing."

Despite progress, over a quarter of Armenians live below the poverty
line and widespread perceptions of corruption dog the top candidates.

"Our choice is between bad and worse," was a phrased repeated by
voters on election day.

Such sentiment benefited former parliamentary speaker Artur
Baghdasarian, a 39-year-old populist politician who is calling for
Armenia’s accession to the EU and NATO. He pulled even with Ter-
Petrosian in pre-election polls, with about 10-15 per cent each.

In all, nine candidates appear on Tuesday’s ballot. The first
official election results were expected from midnight (20.00 GMT).

The United States has threatened to withhold 235 million dollars in
aid, while further diplomatic relations with the European Union may
be contingent on the fairness of Tuesday’s vote, which was monitored
by 620 international observers.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s vote
monitoring mission was to deliver its assessment on Wednesday
afternoon.