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Global Post
Feb 17 2013
FACTBOX-Armenia's presidential election
YEREVAN, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Armenia holds a presidential election on
Monday. Here are some key facts about the former Soviet republic and
the main contenders in the election.
MAIN CONTENDERS
Seven candidates are running. The leading one is 59-year-old incumbent
President Serzh Sarksyan, whose election to a first term in February
2008 sparked a violent post-election crisis that left at least ten
people dead.
Opinion polls show the Sarksyan getting 67-69 percent of the vote on Monday.
He is followed by the 53-year-old, U.S.-born Raffi Hovannisian, a
former foreign minister and a current leader of the opposition
Heritage Party. Opinion polls put Hovannisian at 11-20 percent of the
vote.
Polls indicated other candidates could count on less than 5 percent,
including Paruyr Hayrikyan, 63-year-old leader of the National
Self-determination Union, who was shot in the shoulder on Jan. 31 near
his home in the capital Yerevan.
Doctors removed the bullet from Hayrikyan's shoulder and said his life
was not in danger, but he returned to hospital earlier this week
saying he did not feel well.
ELECTION MONITORS
More than 300 international observers from the Organisation for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) as well as about 25,000
local observers were to monitor the vote.
KEY FACTS
POPULATION - 3.2 million as of December 2012, according to the
National Statistics Service. The Central Election Commission says
there are about 2.5 million eligible voters.
GEOGRAPHY - Landlocked, bordering Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran and
Turkey, Armenia covers an area of 29,800 square km (11,500 square
miles). The capital is Yerevan.
POLITICS - Armenia is locked in a prolonged dispute with neighbouring
Azerbaijan over the tiny region of Nagorno-Karabakh, over which they
fought a war in the 1990s.
Armenia also has fraught relations with Turkey, in part because Ankara
does not recognise as genocide the killing of Armenians in Ottoman
Turkey during World War One.
ECONOMY - The Armenian economy grew about 7.0 percent in 2012,
recovering from the 2008-09 global crisis, which resulted in a 14.2
percent contraction in 2009. The government forecasts 6.0 percent
growth in 2013. Inflation eased to 3.2 percent in 2012 from 4.7
percent in 2011 and 9.4 percent in 2010, while the fiscal deficit was
below 3 percent last year. (Reporting by Margarita Antidze)
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/thomson-reuters/130217/factbox-armenias-presidential-election
From: Baghdasarian
Feb 17 2013
FACTBOX-Armenia's presidential election
YEREVAN, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Armenia holds a presidential election on
Monday. Here are some key facts about the former Soviet republic and
the main contenders in the election.
MAIN CONTENDERS
Seven candidates are running. The leading one is 59-year-old incumbent
President Serzh Sarksyan, whose election to a first term in February
2008 sparked a violent post-election crisis that left at least ten
people dead.
Opinion polls show the Sarksyan getting 67-69 percent of the vote on Monday.
He is followed by the 53-year-old, U.S.-born Raffi Hovannisian, a
former foreign minister and a current leader of the opposition
Heritage Party. Opinion polls put Hovannisian at 11-20 percent of the
vote.
Polls indicated other candidates could count on less than 5 percent,
including Paruyr Hayrikyan, 63-year-old leader of the National
Self-determination Union, who was shot in the shoulder on Jan. 31 near
his home in the capital Yerevan.
Doctors removed the bullet from Hayrikyan's shoulder and said his life
was not in danger, but he returned to hospital earlier this week
saying he did not feel well.
ELECTION MONITORS
More than 300 international observers from the Organisation for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) as well as about 25,000
local observers were to monitor the vote.
KEY FACTS
POPULATION - 3.2 million as of December 2012, according to the
National Statistics Service. The Central Election Commission says
there are about 2.5 million eligible voters.
GEOGRAPHY - Landlocked, bordering Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran and
Turkey, Armenia covers an area of 29,800 square km (11,500 square
miles). The capital is Yerevan.
POLITICS - Armenia is locked in a prolonged dispute with neighbouring
Azerbaijan over the tiny region of Nagorno-Karabakh, over which they
fought a war in the 1990s.
Armenia also has fraught relations with Turkey, in part because Ankara
does not recognise as genocide the killing of Armenians in Ottoman
Turkey during World War One.
ECONOMY - The Armenian economy grew about 7.0 percent in 2012,
recovering from the 2008-09 global crisis, which resulted in a 14.2
percent contraction in 2009. The government forecasts 6.0 percent
growth in 2013. Inflation eased to 3.2 percent in 2012 from 4.7
percent in 2011 and 9.4 percent in 2010, while the fiscal deficit was
below 3 percent last year. (Reporting by Margarita Antidze)
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/thomson-reuters/130217/factbox-armenias-presidential-election
From: Baghdasarian