PUTIN CONFIRMS HIS INVITING SARGSYAN TO RUSSIA
ARKA
March 11, 2008
YEREVAN, March 10. /ARKA/. Russian President Vladimir Putin
confirmed Monday his invitation sent to Armenian president elect
Serge Sargsyan. Kremlin press office reports.
RIA Novosti says referring to the press office report that Putin
congratulated Sargsyan on his election again confirmed his invitation
in Monday’s phone talk with the latter.
On Saturday, Armenian Constitutional Court declined presidential
candidates Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s and Tigran Karapetyan’s suits against
the central election commission.
The court left the commission’s recognition of Serge Sargsyan as
president elect unchanged.
According to the commission-announced final results of the 2008
presidential election, Serge Sargsyan won presidency by scoring 52.82%
of votes.
The commission says Ter-Petrosyan got 21.5% and Karapetyan 0.6%.
Both candidates insist that the election was rigged and demand the
court to void the results.
On February 20, Armenian opposition headed by former president Levon
Ter-Petrosyan launched protests in Yerevan’s Libery Square disputing
the results of the recent presidential election and insisting that
the election was fraudulent.
The police attacked protesters Saturday night. Protests continued in
the square near France’s embassy and city hall.
The police department says that the crowd started destroying nearby
shops and other buildings. According to the police’s report, eight
people were killed and 131 injured in the clash and 36 cars burnt.
President Kocharyan imposed state of emergency on March 1.