ARMENIANS RIOT OVER PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION RESULT
Angela Balakrishnan and agencies

guardian.co.uk
Wednesday February 20 2008

Thousands of supporters of Armenia’s leading opposition candidate
were rioting today after it was announced that the prime minister,
Serge Sarkisian, had won the country’s presidential election.

Armenia’s election chief, Garegin Azarian, said a complete preliminary
count of the first round showed Sarkisian had gained nearly 53%
of the vote.

The result is enough to avoid a runoff against the top opposition
candidate, Levon Ter-Petrosian, who received about 21%.

Election officials said turnout was nearly 70%. However, the opposition
are alleging widespread fraud and said voters were harassed and beaten.

Ter-Petrosian, who was Armenia’s first president after it gained
independence in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union,
is insisting he is the real winner and is calling for mass protest.

Riot police armed with truncheons and shields were today facing
several thousands of protestors in Yerevan, the capital of the former
Soviet republic.

Sarkisian was groomed by the outgoing president, Robert Kocharyan,
and was favoured to win the election.

The election campaign was dominated by policies for economic revival:
more than a quarter of Armenia’s 3.2 million people live in poverty.

The allegations of fraud and mass protests bring further instability
to the volatile country, caught between the energy-rich Caspian Sea
region, southern Europe and bordering Iran.

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and observers
from a Moscow-led group of ex-Soviet republics, were monitoring the
vote and will release their assessment later today.

Millions of dollars of aid from the US and closer links with Europe
could be jeopardised if the elections are judged to have not met
democratic standards.