Post-election opposition rally mixture of sadness and elation

Roads into Yerevan were reportedly blocked yesterday ahead of the first opposition rally staged after Sunday’s muncipal election, the first to indirectly determine the mayor of the capital in 15 years.

Even so, that shouldn’t have made much of a difference in terms of attendance figures in a city with a population of well over a million and with preliminary results showing the opposition Armenian National Congress (ANC) to have garnered 69, 871 votes in the disputed poll. Moreover, few should have been surprised.

Amidst reports of vote-buying, ballot box stuffing, and the busing of otherwise apathetic voters to polling stations as well as just plain old intimidation, the ruling Republican Party of Armenia cruised to victory with 190,171 votes. In what might be a world record for spending the least amount of time in a polling station, the Council of Europe’s small 15-person observation mission visited between 200-230 polling stations on election day in less than 12 hours and gave the vote a clean bill of health.

Hoping that the municipal election would become a second round of last year’s bitterly contested presidential election, it’s perhaps no wonder that one blog reported earlier in the day that some opposition supporters are becoming weary.

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The rest of this post is available on The Frontline Club while some more images are below.