EURASIA INSIGHT
2/20/03
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Armenia faces a contentious run-off presidential election in early March, as President Robert Kocharian narrowly missed reaching the 50 percent barrier needed to secure outright victory in the first round. Claims of ballot-rigging, made by Kocharian’s leading presidential rivals, marred the February 19 election.
According to preliminary results provided by Armenia’s Central Election Commission (CEC), Kocharian received 49.8 percent of the vote. Stepan Demirchian, leader of the People’s Party, had the second highest vote total at about 28 percent. The two are expected to compete in the run-off election, tentatively scheduled for March 5.
Prior to the release of official preliminary vote totals, several thousand Demirchian supporters staged an impromptu demonstration February 20 outside the CEC headquarters in Yerevan, during which they accused election officials of attempting to adjust voting totals to give Kocharian a first-round victory. The CEC’s announcement on preliminary results ended up being delayed for several hours. CEC officials blamed winter weather conditions for the delay.
Kocharian opponents voiced complaints on election day about widespread voting irregularities, including ballot-stuffing. In one instance according to Aleksander Butayev, campaign manager for candidate Vazgen Manukian those showing up to vote in one Yerevan neighborhood were not permitted into the polling station. Instead, authorities seized their identity documents and returned them "only after the needed candidate was elected,’" the Arminfo news agency quoted Butayev as saying.
Independent observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly also reported "serious irregularities," including intimidation of voters and ballot rigging.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for Kocharian’s campaign, Vaagn Mkrtchian, suggested that complaints about irregularities were overblown. "Our team did not record any serious violations," Mkrtchian told the Mediamax news agency February 19. Observers from the Commonwealth of Independent States concurred with the Kocharian team’s assessment. "The elections proceeded within the framework of the law, despite a few rough edges that cannot affect the results," Arminfo quoted CIS Secretary Yuri Yarov as saying.
On Election Day, Demirchian, along with three other presidential contenders Manukian, Aram Karapetian and Artashes Gegamyan issued a statement that accused Kocharian of undermining Armenia’s democratic development.
"The process of free and fair elections, as well as the country’s international authority, are in danger," the statement said. "All this testifies to the recent efforts of the president, who does not enjoy the people’s trust, to retain his power at any price, which he will not manage to do."
The campaign leading up the February 19 vote had focused mainly on economic themes. Kocharian cast himself as the guarantor of stability and prosperity. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archives]. The controversy that has engulfed the February 19 balloting indicates that the next few weeks will likely feature a heightened mood of political confrontation.
Posted February 20, 2003 © Eurasianet
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