Armenia Elects New President
Finally the day has arrived. Two hours ago 1,923 polling stations across the country opened. Whatever the outcome one thing is certain. In this round or a possible second, Armenia will elect a new president in a vote that international observers hope will represent a marked improvement over the last presidential election in 2003. The BBC has already posted a news item on election day.
People are voting in fiercely-contested presidential elections in the former Soviet republic of Armenia.
Many Armenians say the main issues are unemployment, poverty and corruption.
[…]
This election was initially expected to be a smooth handover of power from the current President Robert Kocharian to his friend, the Prime Minister Serge Sarkisian.
But it has turned into a much more volatile contest.
[…]
The Armenian authorities strongly deny that they are manipulating the election process.
But there seems little doubt that if opposition activists aren’t happy with the results, they will take their anger to the streets.
Turnout at the three polling stations I visited this morning appears to be quite low with only 10-30 visiting each. However, as it’s overcast in Yerevan and a little bit dreary it’s perhaps not a surprise that many people are staying in perhaps until later. Today is officially officially a non-working day so that’s not unexpected. Regardless, the situation in the three polling stations in my district of Yerevan is calm although a little confusing.
In particular, while everything does appear to be proceeding normally, the number of candidate proxies and domestic observers is quite low. In one polling station, for example, only two candidates — Levon Ter-Petrossian and Artur Baghdasarian — had proxies present. Moreover, and perhaps of some concern, there has been no sign of observers from It’s Your Choice, the largest domestic observation NGO in the country.
The organization was meant to deploy 3,940 observers at 1,923 polling stations in the country, but at these three they hadn’t turned up. This is concerning because the organization usually conducts a parallel voter turnout count which can be later used to compare with the official figures recorded at each polling station. Moreover, it was also surprising to discover that Ter-Petrossian’s proxy wasn’t doing the same either and nor was anyone else for that matter.
As such a parallel voter count is considered vital in determining whether the number of votes has been inflated at individual polling stations, this is a little concerning. The same is true for opposition proxies as well given that one can expect certain allegations to be made later.
Still, on a brighter note, while very few of the PEC members, proxies and observers were identifiable at the three polling stations I visited i.e. they didn’t all wear their badges, there were some interesting new developments. Firstly, in all but one which was too small to do so, the polling booths are faced away from the PEC members. Secondly, passports are now stamped to prevent multiple voting.
It’s too early to make any conclusion about the conduct of the vote, but so far all appears to be calm and running smoothly.
Photos: Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008
- Published:
- 02.19.08 / 11am by Onnik
- Category:
- Armenia, Armenia Presidential Election 2008, Candidates, Democracy, Election Day, Proxies, Voting
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