Opposition cries fraud in milestone Armenia polls
Five parties eye 101 parliamentary seats
Yerevan, April 2: Opposition parties denounced electoral violations as Armenians voted in legislative polls Sunday for the first time since the adoption of constitutional reforms transforming the ex-Soviet country into a parliamentary republic.
The West sees the election as a key democratic test for the small landlocked nation of 2.9 million, which has no history of transfers of power to an opposition through the ballot box. The vote is dominated by fierce competition between the ruling party of pro-Moscow President Serzh Sarkisian and an opposition coalition led by Gagik Tsarukian, a former arm wrestler who is one of the country’s wealthiest businessmen.
Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan told journalists he “voted for progress and security,” urging ballots be cast in “a spirit of solidarity and tolerance.”
Turnout stood at 33 percent six hours after polls opened, the central electoral commission said.
But opposition politicians reported violations at polling stations after previously warning that the government is preparing mass electoral fraud.
“We have recorded numerous violations at polling stations -- violation of ballots’ secrecy and multiple voting,” Hovsep Khurshudyan, a leader of Ohanyan-Raffi-Oskanyan, an opposition coalition, said. Armenia’s interior ministry said it was probing 320 complaints of irregularities, while justice minister Arpine Hovhannisyan demanded parties “refrain from incorrect claims of mass violations.”
US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said its correspondent Sisak Gabrielyan “was attacked by government loyalists in Yerevan on Sunday while covering Armenia’s parliamentary elections.”
Violence flared following Sarkisian’s election in 2008 with 10 people killed in clashes between police and opposition supporters.
This time, the country aims to hold an exemplary vote to elect “a parliament trusted by society,” the president had said in a March interview. — AFP