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Armenians vote in hotly-contested Yerevan mayor race

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  • Armenians vote in hotly-contested Yerevan mayor race

    Global Post
    May 5 2013


    Armenians vote in hotly-contested Yerevan mayor race

    AFP

    Armenians in the capital Yerevan voted Sunday in a mayoral election
    that the country's weakened opposition hopes would see them claw back
    momentum from President Serzh Sarkisian reelection.

    Several opposition parties are taking part in the vote for mayor of
    Yerevan after they failed to put up candidates for the presidential
    poll in February.

    "I voted for... the political party that has a clear idea of the role
    of the mayor's office in the political life and system of government
    in Armenia," Sarkisian told journalists after casting his ballot.

    Sarkisian, a shrewd former military officer in power since 2008, won
    the presidential poll in the small country nestled in the Caucasus
    mountains between Turkey and Iran with more than 58 percent of the
    vote.

    The February election was seen as an improvement on past polls, even
    though it lacked genuine competition, after the vote that brought
    Sarkisian to power in 2008 ended in clashes between police and
    supporters of the defeated opposition candidate in which 10 people
    died.

    Opposition leaders have attempted to turn Sunday's vote in Yerevan --
    where over a third of Armenia's roughly 3.2 million inhabitants live
    -- into a referendum on Sarkisian's February victory, after a spate of
    street protests fizzled out.

    Analysts have said that Sarkisian's Republican Party remained the
    favourite to retain control over Yerevan and cautioned that the
    opposition was trying to inflate the importance of Sunday's polls.

    Preliminary results are expected Monday.

    mkh-del/zak/boc

    http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130505/armenians-vote-hotly-contested-yerevan-mayor-race

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