YEREVAN MAYORAL VOTE TESTS ARMENIAN GOV’T

Today’s Zaman
May 28 2009
Turkey

Armenia’s capital Yerevan holds a fiercely contested election for
mayor on Sunday, a key test of government popularity as it struggles
with an economic downturn and rapprochement with neighbouring Turkey.

The opposition Armenian National Congress (ANC) is fielding party
leader and former Armenian president Levon Ter-Petrosyan, in the hope
victory in Yerevan will provide the basis for a national challenge
to the authority of President Serzh Sarksyan.

Ter-Petrosyan, Armenia’s first president after independence from the
Soviet Union in 1991, lost to Sarksyan in presidential elections in
February 2008. Ter-Petrosyan’s supporters cried foul and 10 people
including two policemen died in clashes.

Sarksyan’s Republican Party is backing incumbent mayor Gagik
Beglaryan. Pollsters predict a close race, but say Beglaryan is
favourite to win.

The results of elections are routinely challenged by the losing
side. The winner will take charge of a region comprising 1.1 million
of Armenia’s 3.2 million people. With the stakes so high, there is
a risk of more street protests.

Ter-Petrosyan is running under the slogan: "Let’s change Armenia,
starting with Yerevan".

"On May 31, we will celebrate the first stage of our great victory,"
Grigor Harutiunyan, one of the ANC’s candidates for the Yerevan city
council, told a rally on Wednesday.

Armenia’s leaders say they want to build a European-style democracy
and have won some Western praise. But opponents say the country is
ruled by a clique who refuse to give rivals access to political power
or economic influence.

The opposition is hoping to capitalise on discontent over the state
of the economy, which has nose-dived with the global economic crisis
and the impact of economic and strategic ally Russia sliding into
recession.

GDP in the landlocked country is forecast to contract by 5.8 percent
in 2009 and prices have crept up since the Central Bank floated the
Dram currency in March.

Sarksyan has also come under fire for a roadmap announced in April
to normalise ties with Turkey after a century of hostility over the
World War One killings.

Many Armenians welcomed the deal in the belief Turkey would open
their border, which Ankara closed in 1993 over Armenia’s backing for
ethnic Armenian separatists fighting a war in Azerbaijan’s breakaway
Nagorno-Karabakh region.

But Turkish leaders have since said the frontier will remain shut
until Armenia makes concessions on Nagorno-Karabakh. The opposition
charges that Sarksyan was out-manoeuvred.

Just over 770,000 people are eligible to vote. Official results are
expected on Monday.