CEC DECLARES SERZH SARKISIAN PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA
ARMENPRESS
Feb 25, 2008
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS: On Sunday afternoon Armenia’s
Central Election Commission (CEC) declared officially prime minister
Serzh Sarkisian as the winner of the February 19 presidential election.
The statement was made after CEC summarized the outcome of vote
recounting in several polling stations, as was demanded by some
opposition candidates.
CEC chairman, Garegin Azarian, said prime minister Serzh Sarkisian
received a total pf 862,369 votes or 52.82%.
His nearest rivals, Armenia’s first president Levon-Ter-Petrosian
and ex-parliamentary speaker Arthur Baghdasarian received 21.5%
(351,222 votes) and 17.7% (272,427 votes), respectively.
Six other candidates gained less than 10% of the votes, the Central
Election Commission said.
A total of 1.67 million people took part in the country’s elections,
with voter turnout of almost 70%.
The International Election Observation Mission (IEOM) said in its
preliminary statement that the presidential election was conducted
mostly in line with the country’s international commitments,
adding however, that further improvements are necessary to address
such remaining challenges as the lack of public confidence in the
electoral process and the absence of a clear separation between state
and party functions."
The president-elect will be inaugurated on April 9, the day when the
office of incumbent president Robert Kocharian ends.