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Sarkisian Easily Wins Armenian Presidential Vote

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  • Sarkisian Easily Wins Armenian Presidential Vote

    SARKISIAN EASILY WINS ARMENIAN PRESIDENTIAL VOTE

    The Associated Press
    February 19, 2013 Tuesday 05:10 PM GMT

    Armenia's president easily won a second term, according to preliminary
    election results Tuesday, but his main rival claimed vote fraud and
    thousands of his supporters held a protest rally.

    President Serge Sarkisian received nearly 59 percent of the vote,
    enough to avoid a runoff, Tigran Mukuchian, chairman of the country's
    Central Election Commission, said Tuesday.

    The 58-year-old Sarkisian was widely expected to win. He has overseen
    a return to economic growth after years of stagnation, although the
    former Soviet republic still suffers from widespread poverty.

    The closest of his six rivals, American-born Raffi Hovanessian,
    got 37 percent of the vote.

    Hovanessian, Armenia's first foreign minister after the 1991 collapse
    of the Soviet Union, on Tuesday called the election unfair and rigged,
    claiming cases of ballot-box stuffing and voters being coerced to
    back Sarkisian.

    At a protest rally in the capital that drew 2,000-3,000 people,
    Hovanessian declared himself the genuine winner and called on Sarkisian
    to arrange a transfer of power by Wednesday evening.

    The rally ended peacefully, but some participants later held a march
    chanting "Raffi is president."

    Just over 60 percent of Armenia's 2.5 million eligible voters cast
    ballots in Monday's election, the election commission said. All
    the votes have been counted, but the winner will not be officially
    declared until Feb. 25.

    International observers from the Organization for the Security and
    Cooperation in Europe say the election "lacked competition," but they
    noted improvements over the previous poll.

    OSCE observers said the fact that several influential politicians
    decided not to run may have "contributed to apathy and a lack of
    trust among voters."

    Observer mission chief Tonino Picula said Tuesday that competition is
    "critical" if Armenia wants to live up to democratic aspirations.

    Another OSCE news conference in Yerevan, this one by its Office
    for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, was disrupted Tuesday
    when protesters stormed the room, jeering and demanding that OSCE
    representatives leave the country.

    "You're legitimizing an illegal vote by your declarations!" said one
    protester, Artur Minasian.

    He and other protesters would not say whether they backed Hovanessian
    or another opposition candidate.

    The landlocked country's economy is hobbled by the longstanding closure
    of its borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey. Both neighbors reject the
    occupation by Armenian troops and ethnic Armenian local forces of
    Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region. That conflict shows no signs
    of resolution despite years of international mediation attempts.

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