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The Moscow Times, Russia
March 17 2013
Armenia's Top Court Upholds Re-Election of Sargsyan
17 March 2013 | Issue 5089
Reuters
YEREVAN - Armenia's Constitutional Court on Thursday rejected claims
by two unsuccessful presidential candidates that the Feb. 18 vote was
rigged, upholding the re-election of incumbent Serzh Sargsyan.
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
it 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 Sargsyan in power
left 10 people dead.
This time around, Sargsyan 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 Feb. 25 on the results of the presidential elections from Feb.
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 Sargsyan to resign.
"We will continue our political fight within the framework of law and
constitution until we win," said Hovsep Khurshudyan, a 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 neighboring Azerbaijan two
decades after a war between the two over the enclave of
Nagorno-Karabakh killed some 30,000 people.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/armenias-top-court-upholds-re-election-of-sargsyan/476992.html
March 17 2013
Armenia's Top Court Upholds Re-Election of Sargsyan
17 March 2013 | Issue 5089
Reuters
YEREVAN - Armenia's Constitutional Court on Thursday rejected claims
by two unsuccessful presidential candidates that the Feb. 18 vote was
rigged, upholding the re-election of incumbent Serzh Sargsyan.
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
it 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 Sargsyan in power
left 10 people dead.
This time around, Sargsyan 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 Feb. 25 on the results of the presidential elections from Feb.
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 Sargsyan to resign.
"We will continue our political fight within the framework of law and
constitution until we win," said Hovsep Khurshudyan, a 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 neighboring Azerbaijan two
decades after a war between the two over the enclave of
Nagorno-Karabakh killed some 30,000 people.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/armenias-top-court-upholds-re-election-of-sargsyan/476992.html