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Agence France Presse
February 15, 2013 Friday 7:49 AM GMT
Armenia leader cruising to election victory
YEREVAN, Feb 14 2013
Armenia votes in presidential polls Monday with incumbent leader Serzh
Sarkisian set for victory in an election watched closely as a test of
the ex-Soviet state's democratic credentials but marked by an absence
of any serious opposition challenge.
The holding of the election was in doubt until almost the last minute
following a mysterious assassination attempt against one hopeful, but
the vote is going ahead after he declined to request a delay.
The authorities will be above all hoping for peaceful polls to improve
prospects of European integration after the disputed presidential
elections that brought Sarkisian to power in 2008 ended in clashes
leaving 10 people dead.
Sarkisian has called for the elections to be "exemplary", saying that
the landlocked and resource-poor country has "no future" if its polls
cannot correspond to European standards.
"Armenia does not have oil and gas like (its neighbour and foe)
Azerbaijan. The only serious factor in relations with Europe can be a
democratic image," said the head of the Armenian sociological
association, Gevorg Pogosyan.
Most opinion polls give Sarkisian a strong lead and fractured
opposition forces have failed to find a common challenger to the
incumbent leader.
Sarkisian, 59, is a veteran of the 1990s war with Azerbaijan over the
disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh and derives much of his popularity
from a tough can-do militaristic image.
A fanatical chess player who heads the Armenian chess federation, his
foreign policy seems itself like a canny chess game with tiny Armenia
managing to be friends with NATO, Russia and powerful neighbour Iran.
-- 'Already clear in December' --
The outcome became predictable in December, when two influential
political figures capable of injecting some suspense into the campaign
announced they would not run.
The highly popular leader of the Prosperous Armenia party, super-rich
former arm wrestling champion Gagik Tsarukian, said he was out of
race.
And another potentially heavyweight candidate, Armenia's first
post-Soviet president Levon Ter-Petrosian, said that at age 68 he is
too old for the country's top job.
"The outcome of the elections was already clear in December last
year," said the director of the Caucasus Media Institute, Alexander
Iskandarian.
The leading challenger is Armenia's ex-foreign minister Raffi
Hovanissian, 54, who was born in the United States and used to
practise as a lawyer in Los Angeles.
The Soviet-era dissident Paruyr Hayrikyan -- the target of the
assassination bid -- and former premier Hrant Bagratian are the other
main figures among seven challengers to Sarkisian.
Sarkisian was on course to poll 68 percent against Hovanissian's 24
percent, while Hayrikyan and Bagratian have single-digit approval
ratings, according to a poll by the Gallup International Association.
The campaign was marred by violence when Hayrikyan -- a Soviet-era
dissident who spent several years in prisons as a supporter of
Armenian independence -- was wounded in an apparent assassination bid
on January 31.
All candidates are making populist promises to fight poverty and unemployment.
Some 36 percent of Armenians live below the poverty line, according to
the World Bank. During the last two decades, economic hardship and
unemployment drove nearly a million Armenians out of the country of
3.3 million.
Campaigning also focused on Armenia's long-running disputes with
arch-foe neighbours Turkey and Azerbaijan.
No final peace deal has been reached with Azerbaijan since the 1990s
war over Nagorny Karabakh and the risk of a new conflict remains
palpable.
The normalisation process with Ankara -- which could have ended
decades of enmity over the World War I-era mass killings of Armenians
under the Ottoman Empire -- has stalled after Turkey faced a backlash
from Azerbaijan and the opposition at home.
During his campaign, Sarkisian vowed massive military retaliation if
Azerbaijan tries to retake Karabakh by force and pledged to pursue
efforts for international recognition of the killings of Armenians by
Ottoman Turks as genocide.
International observers from the Organisation for Security and
Cooperation in Europe will monitor voting, which starts at 0400 GMT on
Monday and ends at 1600 GMT.
mkh-im/sjw/mm
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
February 15, 2013 Friday 7:49 AM GMT
Armenia leader cruising to election victory
YEREVAN, Feb 14 2013
Armenia votes in presidential polls Monday with incumbent leader Serzh
Sarkisian set for victory in an election watched closely as a test of
the ex-Soviet state's democratic credentials but marked by an absence
of any serious opposition challenge.
The holding of the election was in doubt until almost the last minute
following a mysterious assassination attempt against one hopeful, but
the vote is going ahead after he declined to request a delay.
The authorities will be above all hoping for peaceful polls to improve
prospects of European integration after the disputed presidential
elections that brought Sarkisian to power in 2008 ended in clashes
leaving 10 people dead.
Sarkisian has called for the elections to be "exemplary", saying that
the landlocked and resource-poor country has "no future" if its polls
cannot correspond to European standards.
"Armenia does not have oil and gas like (its neighbour and foe)
Azerbaijan. The only serious factor in relations with Europe can be a
democratic image," said the head of the Armenian sociological
association, Gevorg Pogosyan.
Most opinion polls give Sarkisian a strong lead and fractured
opposition forces have failed to find a common challenger to the
incumbent leader.
Sarkisian, 59, is a veteran of the 1990s war with Azerbaijan over the
disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh and derives much of his popularity
from a tough can-do militaristic image.
A fanatical chess player who heads the Armenian chess federation, his
foreign policy seems itself like a canny chess game with tiny Armenia
managing to be friends with NATO, Russia and powerful neighbour Iran.
-- 'Already clear in December' --
The outcome became predictable in December, when two influential
political figures capable of injecting some suspense into the campaign
announced they would not run.
The highly popular leader of the Prosperous Armenia party, super-rich
former arm wrestling champion Gagik Tsarukian, said he was out of
race.
And another potentially heavyweight candidate, Armenia's first
post-Soviet president Levon Ter-Petrosian, said that at age 68 he is
too old for the country's top job.
"The outcome of the elections was already clear in December last
year," said the director of the Caucasus Media Institute, Alexander
Iskandarian.
The leading challenger is Armenia's ex-foreign minister Raffi
Hovanissian, 54, who was born in the United States and used to
practise as a lawyer in Los Angeles.
The Soviet-era dissident Paruyr Hayrikyan -- the target of the
assassination bid -- and former premier Hrant Bagratian are the other
main figures among seven challengers to Sarkisian.
Sarkisian was on course to poll 68 percent against Hovanissian's 24
percent, while Hayrikyan and Bagratian have single-digit approval
ratings, according to a poll by the Gallup International Association.
The campaign was marred by violence when Hayrikyan -- a Soviet-era
dissident who spent several years in prisons as a supporter of
Armenian independence -- was wounded in an apparent assassination bid
on January 31.
All candidates are making populist promises to fight poverty and unemployment.
Some 36 percent of Armenians live below the poverty line, according to
the World Bank. During the last two decades, economic hardship and
unemployment drove nearly a million Armenians out of the country of
3.3 million.
Campaigning also focused on Armenia's long-running disputes with
arch-foe neighbours Turkey and Azerbaijan.
No final peace deal has been reached with Azerbaijan since the 1990s
war over Nagorny Karabakh and the risk of a new conflict remains
palpable.
The normalisation process with Ankara -- which could have ended
decades of enmity over the World War I-era mass killings of Armenians
under the Ottoman Empire -- has stalled after Turkey faced a backlash
from Azerbaijan and the opposition at home.
During his campaign, Sarkisian vowed massive military retaliation if
Azerbaijan tries to retake Karabakh by force and pledged to pursue
efforts for international recognition of the killings of Armenians by
Ottoman Turks as genocide.
International observers from the Organisation for Security and
Cooperation in Europe will monitor voting, which starts at 0400 GMT on
Monday and ends at 1600 GMT.
mkh-im/sjw/mm
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress