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ARMENIANS VOTE IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION MARRED BY SHOOTING
Financial Mirror
Feb 18 2013
Armenians voted in a presidential election on Monday that is likely
to hand incumbent Serzh Sarksyan a new five-year term, but the lack
of any serious opposition and an assassination attempt on one of his
rivals cast a shadow over the election.
Opinion polls suggest Sarksyan's victory is all but certain. He is on
target to win more than 60% of the votes in the small, landlocked
country in the South Caucasus, with the next of the other six
candidates barely in double figures.
Sarksyan's supporters hope an election free of the violence and fraud
that marred the last presidential poll in 2008, when ten people were
killed in clashes, would show the world the former Soviet republic
is on the path to economic recovery after years of war and upheaval.
Political stability was a concern among a steady trickle of voters
who headed to a polling station at a children's daycare centre in
the capital, Yerevan.
But with none of Sarksyan serious rivals in the opposition choosing
to stand in the race, election observers expressed concerns over the
democratic credentials of the vote.
Officials from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
said they found apathy towards the election and a lack of confidence
about the electoral process among the public when they visited the
country in January.
There are also questions about security in a country that is locked
in a dispute with neighbouring Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh,
an ethnic Armenian-majority enclave inside Azerbaijan over which
Armenians and Azeris fought a war in the 1990s. Sarksyan, 59, like
many of his generation, is a veteran of that war.
Tensions over the mountainous enclave still pose a threat to peace
in a region where pipelines take Caspian oil and natural gas to Europe.
Concerns about instability were underlined in an attempt to kill
Paruyr Hayrikyan, 63, an outsider in the election. He was shot in
the shoulder on January 31.
Another outsider in the race, Andrias Ghukasyan, has been on a hunger
strike since the start of the campaign to press demands for Sarksyan's
candidacy to be annulled and for international observers to boycott
the vote.
A third candidate, Arman Melikyan, has said he will not vote on Monday
because he believes the election will be slanted in the president's
favour. Other potential candidates did not take part in the race for
similar reasons.
International observers from the Organisation for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) are monitoring polls, which opened at
8 a.m. (0400 GMT) and close at 8 p.m. (1600 GMT).
The first exit polls are expected a few hours after polls close and
official results on Tuesday at 8 p.m.
http://www.financialmirror.com/news-details.php?nid=28867
Financial Mirror
Feb 18 2013
Armenians voted in a presidential election on Monday that is likely
to hand incumbent Serzh Sarksyan a new five-year term, but the lack
of any serious opposition and an assassination attempt on one of his
rivals cast a shadow over the election.
Opinion polls suggest Sarksyan's victory is all but certain. He is on
target to win more than 60% of the votes in the small, landlocked
country in the South Caucasus, with the next of the other six
candidates barely in double figures.
Sarksyan's supporters hope an election free of the violence and fraud
that marred the last presidential poll in 2008, when ten people were
killed in clashes, would show the world the former Soviet republic
is on the path to economic recovery after years of war and upheaval.
Political stability was a concern among a steady trickle of voters
who headed to a polling station at a children's daycare centre in
the capital, Yerevan.
But with none of Sarksyan serious rivals in the opposition choosing
to stand in the race, election observers expressed concerns over the
democratic credentials of the vote.
Officials from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
said they found apathy towards the election and a lack of confidence
about the electoral process among the public when they visited the
country in January.
There are also questions about security in a country that is locked
in a dispute with neighbouring Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh,
an ethnic Armenian-majority enclave inside Azerbaijan over which
Armenians and Azeris fought a war in the 1990s. Sarksyan, 59, like
many of his generation, is a veteran of that war.
Tensions over the mountainous enclave still pose a threat to peace
in a region where pipelines take Caspian oil and natural gas to Europe.
Concerns about instability were underlined in an attempt to kill
Paruyr Hayrikyan, 63, an outsider in the election. He was shot in
the shoulder on January 31.
Another outsider in the race, Andrias Ghukasyan, has been on a hunger
strike since the start of the campaign to press demands for Sarksyan's
candidacy to be annulled and for international observers to boycott
the vote.
A third candidate, Arman Melikyan, has said he will not vote on Monday
because he believes the election will be slanted in the president's
favour. Other potential candidates did not take part in the race for
similar reasons.
International observers from the Organisation for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) are monitoring polls, which opened at
8 a.m. (0400 GMT) and close at 8 p.m. (1600 GMT).
The first exit polls are expected a few hours after polls close and
official results on Tuesday at 8 p.m.
http://www.financialmirror.com/news-details.php?nid=28867