OPPOSITION CRIES FOUL IN ‘MILESTONE’ ARMENIA POLLS
YEREVAN: Opposition parties denounced electoral violations as Armenians voted in legislative polls yesterday 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, told AFP.
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 yesterday while covering Armenia’s parliamentary elections.”
Before the vote, the EU delegation to Armenia and the US embassy said in a joint statement that they were “concerned by allegations of voter intimidation, attempts to buy votes, and the systemic use of administrative resources to aid certain competing parties.” 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 told AFP in a March interview. He said his government “has made enormous efforts so that (Sunday’s) milestone vote is flawless.”