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ARMENIA'S TOP COURT UPHOLDS RE-ELECTION OF SARKSYAN.
EuroNews, EU
March 14 2013
YEREVAN (Reuters) - Armenia's Constitutional Court on Thursday rejected
claims by two unsuccessful presidential candidates that a February 18
vote was rigged, upholding the re-election of incumbent Serzh Sarksyan.
The main election body had said there were no violations during the
vote that could have influenced its outcome, while international
monitors said the ballot was an improvement on previous ones although
lacked real competition.
Investors worry over signs of instability in the South Caucasus region,
a key transit route for Caspian energy resources to Europe.
Violence after the 2008 election that first brought Sarksyan in power
killed 10 people.
This time around, Sarksyan won 58.6 percent of votes but his
second-placed rival, opposition leader Raffi Hovannisian, asserted that
he was the real winner and began a declared hunger strike on March 10.
"The decision is to uphold the federal Election Committee's decision
from February 25 on the results of the presidential elections from
February 18," said Constitutional Court President Gagik Harutyunyan.
The decision cannot be appealed.
Hovannisian, who secured 37 percent of the vote, has staged several
peaceful protests in the capital Yerevan over the lost race and has
called on Sarksyan to resign.
"We will continue our political fight within the framework of law
and constitution until we win," said Hovsep Khurshudyan, spokesman
for Hovannisian's Heritage Party.
Armenia, a landlocked former Soviet republic with a population of
3.2 million, has a common security treaty with Russia and hosts of
one Moscow's few foreign military bases.
It remains in territorial dispute with neighbouring Azerbaijan
two decades after a war between the two over the enclave of
Nagorno-Karabakh killed some 30,000 people.
(Reporting by Hasmik Lazarian Writing by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing
by Mark Heinrich)
http://www.euronews.com/newswires/1855190-armenias-top-court-upholds-re-election-of-sarksyan/
EuroNews, EU
March 14 2013
YEREVAN (Reuters) - Armenia's Constitutional Court on Thursday rejected
claims by two unsuccessful presidential candidates that a February 18
vote was rigged, upholding the re-election of incumbent Serzh Sarksyan.
The main election body had said there were no violations during the
vote that could have influenced its outcome, while international
monitors said the ballot was an improvement on previous ones although
lacked real competition.
Investors worry over signs of instability in the South Caucasus region,
a key transit route for Caspian energy resources to Europe.
Violence after the 2008 election that first brought Sarksyan in power
killed 10 people.
This time around, Sarksyan won 58.6 percent of votes but his
second-placed rival, opposition leader Raffi Hovannisian, asserted that
he was the real winner and began a declared hunger strike on March 10.
"The decision is to uphold the federal Election Committee's decision
from February 25 on the results of the presidential elections from
February 18," said Constitutional Court President Gagik Harutyunyan.
The decision cannot be appealed.
Hovannisian, who secured 37 percent of the vote, has staged several
peaceful protests in the capital Yerevan over the lost race and has
called on Sarksyan to resign.
"We will continue our political fight within the framework of law
and constitution until we win," said Hovsep Khurshudyan, spokesman
for Hovannisian's Heritage Party.
Armenia, a landlocked former Soviet republic with a population of
3.2 million, has a common security treaty with Russia and hosts of
one Moscow's few foreign military bases.
It remains in territorial dispute with neighbouring Azerbaijan
two decades after a war between the two over the enclave of
Nagorno-Karabakh killed some 30,000 people.
(Reporting by Hasmik Lazarian Writing by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing
by Mark Heinrich)
http://www.euronews.com/newswires/1855190-armenias-top-court-upholds-re-election-of-sarksyan/