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ARMENIA'S RULING PARTY WINS YEREVAN MAYOR RACE AMID TENSIONS
Tengri News, Kazakhstan
May 6 2013
Armenia's ruling party has comfortably won a mayoral election in the
capital Yerevan, preliminary results showed Monday, but the opposition
claimed the vote was marred by irregularities, echoing complaints
from this year's presidential polls, AFP reports.
President Serzh Sarkisian's Republican party picked up 55.86 percent
of the vote in Sunday's polls, far outstripping its nearest rival
Prosperous Armenia on just over 23 percent, Armenia's electoral
commission said.
Opposition parties lashed out at the results, with some alleging
violations -- including voter-bribery and the use of disappearing
ink to allow multiple voting -- and called for protests.
The claims echoed accusations levelled against presidential polls in
February that saw the opposition refuse to accept Sarkisian's crushing
victory to win reelection.
"These elections were another crime committed by the current regime
against democracy and the people of Armenia," said a statement from
the Armenian National Congress opposition bloc led by former president
Levon Ter-Petrosian.
Armenia's weakened opposition had hoped to use Sunday's vote to claw
back momentum from Sarkisian after a spate of street protests against
his February victory fizzled out.
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.
That 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 that left 10 people dead.
http://en.tengrinews.kz/politics_sub/Armenias-ruling-party-wins-Yerevan-mayor-race-amid-tensions--19204/
From: Baghdasarian
Tengri News, Kazakhstan
May 6 2013
Armenia's ruling party has comfortably won a mayoral election in the
capital Yerevan, preliminary results showed Monday, but the opposition
claimed the vote was marred by irregularities, echoing complaints
from this year's presidential polls, AFP reports.
President Serzh Sarkisian's Republican party picked up 55.86 percent
of the vote in Sunday's polls, far outstripping its nearest rival
Prosperous Armenia on just over 23 percent, Armenia's electoral
commission said.
Opposition parties lashed out at the results, with some alleging
violations -- including voter-bribery and the use of disappearing
ink to allow multiple voting -- and called for protests.
The claims echoed accusations levelled against presidential polls in
February that saw the opposition refuse to accept Sarkisian's crushing
victory to win reelection.
"These elections were another crime committed by the current regime
against democracy and the people of Armenia," said a statement from
the Armenian National Congress opposition bloc led by former president
Levon Ter-Petrosian.
Armenia's weakened opposition had hoped to use Sunday's vote to claw
back momentum from Sarkisian after a spate of street protests against
his February victory fizzled out.
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.
That 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 that left 10 people dead.
http://en.tengrinews.kz/politics_sub/Armenias-ruling-party-wins-Yerevan-mayor-race-amid-tensions--19204/
From: Baghdasarian