SERGE SARGSIAN ELECTED THIRD PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA AS A RESULT OF FEBRUARY 19 ELECTIONS

Noyan Tapan
Feb 24, 2008

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 24, NOYAN TAPAN. Summarizing the results of the
February 19 presidential elections, the RA Central Electoral Commission
(CEC) on February 24, at 6:20 p.m. made a unanimous decision that
the Armenian prime minister, the chairman of the Republican Party of
Armenia Serge Sargsian has been elected as president of the Republic
of Armenia.

CEC members – representatives of "Orinats Yerkir" and "Zharangutyun"
parties were not present at the sitting. To recap, they did not
attend the February 20 sitting of the CEC either when the preliminary
results of the elections were summarized. As on February 20, during
the February 24 summarizing of the final results of the election,
the uilding of the CEC and the area adjacent to it were under control
of law enforcers.

6 out of the 8 CEC members (including the ARF representative Hamlet
Abrahamian who, as previously, expressed a special opinion) signed the
report on the election results. In the special opinion presented by H.

Abrahamian during the signing of the preliminary results of the vote
in the presidential elections of February 19, 2008, it is indicated
that the violations of the voting procedure in electoral districts No
7, 8, 13 and 17, "as well as electoral bribes, acts of violence and
defects that took root as long ago as 1995 and are still continuing"
made him to form "an opinion that the electoral system in the RA is
need of serious and radical changes".

According to the CEC report, 1,671,027 voters participated in the
voting. 2 mln 390 thousand voting papers were allocated to the local
electoral commissions, 720,303 of which were cancelled. The number
of the used voting-paper knobs made 1,669,678, the number of the
envelopes in the ballot-boxes made 1,667,995. 35,798 voting papers
were recognized as invalid, 1,632,666 voting papers were recognized
as valid.

The votes given to the candidates distributed as follows:

Artur Baghdasarian – 272,427 (or 16.69% of the number of votes given
to all the candidates)

Artashes Geghamian – 7,524 (0.46%)

Tigran Karapetian – 9,792 (0.6%)

Aram Harutyunian – 2,892 (0.18%)

Vahan Hovhannisian – 100,966 (6.18%)

Vazgen Manukian – 21,075 (1.29%)

Arman Melikian – 4,399 (0.27%)

Serge Sargsian – 862,369 (52,82%)

Levon Ter-Petrosian – 351,222 (21.51%)

The number of inaccuracies made 6,720.