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ARMENIA PRESIDENT'S PARTY WINS ELECTION-EARLY RESULTS
Vestnik Kavkaza
May 7 2012
Russia
Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan's Republican Party won a
parliamentary election, early results showed on Monday, in a poll
that was seen as a test of democracy in Russia's main ally in the
South Caucasus region.
The Republican Party took 44 percent of votes in Sunday's vote,
giving Sarksyan a platform to seek a second term as leader of the
former Soviet republic.
Voting ended without any of the violence that marred the 2008
presidential election - a fact that will come as a relief to Armenians
hoping for a period of stability to support the battered economy.
International monitors have a mixed assessment, praising Armenia for
conducting a peaceful vote but criticizing violations of campaign
law and interference by political parties.
Armenia sits in a region that is emerging as an important route for
oil and gas exports from the Caspian Sea to world markets, although
it has no pipelines of its own.
The Republican Party is likely to seek coalition partners, possibly
the Prosperous Armenia party - its main partner in the last government.
Prosperous Armenia, led by wealthy businessman Gagik Tsarukyan,
finished second with 30 percent of votes on Sunday, according to the
preliminary data.
"I don't see any likelihood of mass demonstrations, although the
results were disappointing for many, including Prosperous Armenia,"
said Richard Giragosian, director of the Regional Studies Centre
in Yerevan.
"There are signs that Sarksyan will consolidate his hold on the
Republican Party in preparation for his presidential bid in 2013,"
Giragosian said.
The two leading parties put the economy and social problems at the
heart of their election campaigns.
But there were no major differences in their economic programs,
which called for more work to develop domestic industry and for the
continuation of cooperation with Russia and international financial
organizations.
Three other parties won the 5 percent of votes needed to enter
parliament and the opposition Armenian National Congress, led by
former President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, crossed the 7 percent threshold
for party blocs to take up seats.
HOPES OF STABILITY
Many voters had hoped the election would be a landmark for democracy
after the voting irregularities that marred the 2007 parliamentary
election and clashes killed 10 people after the presidential vote
in 2008.
"Armenia deserves recognition for its electoral reforms and its
open and peaceful campaign environment," the international observers
from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe said in a statement.
But it added that several unnamed "stakeholders" had too often failed
to comply with the law, and the election commissions had "too often
failed to enforce it".
Police received 129 complaints of ballot stuffing, attempts to bribe
voters and other irregularities although the force said some proved
to be false.
Armenia's economy was devastated by a war with neighboring Azerbaijan
in the 1990s and then again by the 2008-2009 global financial crisis.
Although a ceasefire was reached in 1994, the conflict with Azerbaijan
over the tiny Nagorno-Karabakh region remains unresolved and a threat
to stability.
Relations with another neighbor, Turkey, are also fraught because
Ankara does not recognize as genocide the killing of Armenians in
Ottoman Turkey during World War One, Reuters reports.
Vestnik Kavkaza
May 7 2012
Russia
Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan's Republican Party won a
parliamentary election, early results showed on Monday, in a poll
that was seen as a test of democracy in Russia's main ally in the
South Caucasus region.
The Republican Party took 44 percent of votes in Sunday's vote,
giving Sarksyan a platform to seek a second term as leader of the
former Soviet republic.
Voting ended without any of the violence that marred the 2008
presidential election - a fact that will come as a relief to Armenians
hoping for a period of stability to support the battered economy.
International monitors have a mixed assessment, praising Armenia for
conducting a peaceful vote but criticizing violations of campaign
law and interference by political parties.
Armenia sits in a region that is emerging as an important route for
oil and gas exports from the Caspian Sea to world markets, although
it has no pipelines of its own.
The Republican Party is likely to seek coalition partners, possibly
the Prosperous Armenia party - its main partner in the last government.
Prosperous Armenia, led by wealthy businessman Gagik Tsarukyan,
finished second with 30 percent of votes on Sunday, according to the
preliminary data.
"I don't see any likelihood of mass demonstrations, although the
results were disappointing for many, including Prosperous Armenia,"
said Richard Giragosian, director of the Regional Studies Centre
in Yerevan.
"There are signs that Sarksyan will consolidate his hold on the
Republican Party in preparation for his presidential bid in 2013,"
Giragosian said.
The two leading parties put the economy and social problems at the
heart of their election campaigns.
But there were no major differences in their economic programs,
which called for more work to develop domestic industry and for the
continuation of cooperation with Russia and international financial
organizations.
Three other parties won the 5 percent of votes needed to enter
parliament and the opposition Armenian National Congress, led by
former President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, crossed the 7 percent threshold
for party blocs to take up seats.
HOPES OF STABILITY
Many voters had hoped the election would be a landmark for democracy
after the voting irregularities that marred the 2007 parliamentary
election and clashes killed 10 people after the presidential vote
in 2008.
"Armenia deserves recognition for its electoral reforms and its
open and peaceful campaign environment," the international observers
from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe said in a statement.
But it added that several unnamed "stakeholders" had too often failed
to comply with the law, and the election commissions had "too often
failed to enforce it".
Police received 129 complaints of ballot stuffing, attempts to bribe
voters and other irregularities although the force said some proved
to be false.
Armenia's economy was devastated by a war with neighboring Azerbaijan
in the 1990s and then again by the 2008-2009 global financial crisis.
Although a ceasefire was reached in 1994, the conflict with Azerbaijan
over the tiny Nagorno-Karabakh region remains unresolved and a threat
to stability.
Relations with another neighbor, Turkey, are also fraught because
Ankara does not recognize as genocide the killing of Armenians in
Ottoman Turkey during World War One, Reuters reports.