Published since 07.2002
Published on February 22, 2008
A RE-ENGAGED VOTER?: SERZH-LTP STANDOFF PRODUCES NEARLY RECORD-HIGH TURNOUT AMID OPPOSITION CLAIMS OF “INFLATED FIGURES”
- When ex-president Levon Ter-Petrosyan announced his election bid last October and began to gather massive crowds of supporters and sympathizers in the following months, few doubted the February vote would be of huge interest in and outside Armenia. However, few would predict that the voter activity would beat all expectations to stand at roughly the same level (or even exceed) that Armenians registered when they elected their first president (incidentally Ter-Petrosyan) in October 1991 – after decades of having been deprived of a real democratic election by Soviet rulers. (Queues at polling stations were observed all over the former Communist bloc countries in the early 90s).
According to the Central Electoral Commission (CEC), about 1.7 out of some 2.3 million Armenians eligible to vote went to the polls on Tuesday (data is from 1,913 out of 1,923 polling stations) - or more than 70 percent.
(To compare, in the 1996 presidential election the voter turnout was 55 percent, in 1998 – 68 percent, and in 2003 – 61 percent).
But: allegations of inflating voter turnout figures have always dogged Armenian elections perhaps with the exception of those in 1991. Some anecdotal evidence in the 2003 presidential election suggested that in several polling stations the voter turnout proved to be higher than 100 percent – after some data tampering of course, but it was quickly fixed later.
After the announcement of the voter turnout figure by the CEC, the opposition immediately reacted claiming that the authorities had grossly inflated the figure. Ter-Petrosyan campaign manager Alexander Arzumanyan and activist Nikol Pashinyan, in particular, accused the authorities of inflating the turnout by a staggering 500,000. (It may be worth noting that Pashinyan’s own math skills may be questionable, as it was he who frequently reported LTP rally turnout at astronomically exaggerated numbers.)
Claims like these, however, have been denied by the pro-government majority and in particular by the Republican Party of Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan, who has emerged as an outright winner in the Feb. 19 presidential polls.
Still during the tense race ahead of the election, presidential candidate Arman Melikyan turned to the Constitutional Court demanding that some 500,000 citizens of Armenia currently staying or working outside the country be reinstated in the voting rights (according to the amended Armenian election code, only citizens physically present in the territory of the country are allowed to vote).
So, if we do the math and extract some 500,000 from the 600,000 people who did not go to the polls, it will turn out that only 100,000 Armenians actually did not participate in the 2008 presidential election – a result that closely compares with countries like Australia or Brazil where going to the polls is compulsory by law.
Headlines for February 22, 2008
ELECTION DAY 10 A.M. VOTE, WAIT: MANY EXPECT TUESDAY TO PRODUCE LTP-SERGE RUNOFF
Suren Musayelyan and John Hughes
After a constitutionally-imposed “day of rest” in campaigning, voting polls across Armenia opened this morning to determine who will serve as the country’s fifth president. The weekend saw both oppositionist ...ELECTION DAY 11 A.M. PRESIDENT’S PROMISE: THE VOTE WILL BE FAIR
Armenian voters went to polls in overcast but unseasonably mild weather today to select the republic’s fifth president. Outgoing president Robert Kocharyan promised equally fair conditions as a forecast ...ELECTION DAY NOON. ALREADY UGLY: VIOLENCE AND FRAUD REPORTED
Widespread incidents of fraud and violence have occurred just hours after Armenian polling stations opened today.• In the Kotayk region, according to information from Ter-Petrosyan headquarters, tycoon ...ELECTION DAY, 1 P.M. MID-DAY REPORTS CHALLENGE “FREE AND FAIR”: ILLEGALITIES CLAIMED REPUBLIC-WIDE
ArmeniaNow staff
Newsrooms across Armenia continue to receive reports of a tense Election Day... • Reporting from the town of Abovian, Social-Democratic Hunchakian Party chairwoman Lyudmila Sargsyan told ArmeniaNow that ...ELECTION DAY, 2 P.M. THE 911 VOTE: SARGSYAN, TER-PETROSYAN IN DIFFERENT MOODS AT SAME STATION
ArmeniaNow staff
Both Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan and his main opponent former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan voted today in Precinct 9/11.
As he voted, the PM joked with reporters who asked who would win today: “The ...ELECTION DAY, 3 P.M. DEMOCRATIC FRAUD?: BOTH SIDES ACCUSED OF VOTING VIOLATIONS
ArmeniaNow staff
The central headquarters of Serzh Sargsyan released a statement denying reports that its members were involved in violence against supporters of Levon Ter-Petrosyan. Accusing the Ter-Petrosyan camp of ...ELECTION DAY, 4 P.M. CLAIMS AND COUNTER CLAIMS: OPEN VOTING IN VANADZOR, REPORTER ACCOSTED IN YEREVAN
ArmeniaNow staff
Open voting continues in Vanadzor, where Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan is expected to win in the 100,000 resident-city where his Republican Party of Armenia is a stronghold. (“Open” voting allows ballots ...ELECTION DAY, 5 P.M. PROBLEMS NORTH TO SOUTH: IRREGULARITIES CITED FROM DEBED TO KAPAN
ArmeniaNow staff
Central Election Commission officials are expected to announce the latest voter turnout information at 6 p.m. Meanwhile, news from Election Day continues to be filled with allegations of irregularities ...ELECTION DAY, 6 P.M. TWO HOURS REMAIN, ALLEGATIONS CONTINUE: DECISION 2008 WINDS TOWARD CRITICAL RESOLUTION
ArmeniaNow staff
As of 5 p.m. Central Election Commission reports that 57.14 percent of Armenia’s 2.3 million voters have cast ballots.
Meanwhile, the latest round of allegations . . .
• According to Armenia’s Helsinki ...ELECTION DAY, 7 P.M. NEARING THE COUNT: LTP CAMP SAYS EXIT POLL SHOWS THEIR MAN AHEAD
ArmeniaNow staff
Supporters of former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan claim imminent victory as polling stations are due to close about an hour from now. Campaign spokesman Arman Musinyan bases his and his team’s optimism ...ELECTION DAY, 8 P.M. POLLS CLOSE, SPECULATION BEGINS: WILL ALLEGED VIOLATIONS PLAY ROLE IN OUTCOME OF DECISION 2008?
ArmeniaNow staff
As Armenia’s 1,923 polling stations close on another stormy Election Day it appears that voting turnout will be at least more than 60 percent and perhaps an increase from the 61.2 percent of the last ...ELECTION DAY, 9 P.M. NOT GUILTY/GUILTY: POLICE SAY ALLEGATIONS AGAINST RPA ARE INVALID, BUT LTP PEOPLE AT FAULT
ArmeniaNow staff
In a televised press conference this evening, Republic of Armenia Police spokesperson Sayat Shirinyan announced that his department has looked into allegations of wrongdoing by ruling Republican Party ...ELECTION DAY, 10 P.M. WASHINGTON WATCHING: ARMENIAN ANALYST SAYS SOME IN D.C. “OUTRAGED”, NOT SO SAYS US EMBASSY HERE
According to widely-published analyst on Armenian affairs, Richard Giragosian, the initial and unofficial reaction from some US State Department sources to Tuesday’s election in Armenia is “surprise and ...PROTESTING THE PROCESS: “DISGRACE” SAYS TER-PETROSYAN
Gayane Mkrtchyan and Sara Khojoyan
Thousands of presidential candidate Levon Ter-Petrosyan supporters have gathered near Matenadaran today demanding that the February 19 presidential election be recognized null and void.
Scanning “Serzh, ...SARGSYAN WINS, DEMOCRACY CHALLENGED: PRIME MINISTER SET TO TAKE PRESIDENCY FOLLOWING FLAWED ELECTION
Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan is expected to become Armenia’s next president as soon as the formality of counting votes concludes later today. It is expected that the vote will show Sargsyan getting some ...OBSERVERS’ VERDICT: INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS MET
The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) observation mission on Wednesday evaluated Armenia’s February 19 presidential election as meeting international standards, stating that the violations observed ...A RE-ENGAGED VOTER?: SERZH-LTP STANDOFF PRODUCES NEARLY RECORD-HIGH TURNOUT AMID OPPOSITION CLAIMS OF “INFLATED FIGURES”
When ex-president Levon Ter-Petrosyan announced his election bid last October and began to gather massive crowds of supporters and sympathizers in the following months, few doubted the February vote would ...CHESS NEWS: ARONYAN SETS STAGE IN MORELIA FOR SPANISH FINISH
Starting with a defeat in the opening match in Mexico Armenia’s grandmaster Levon Aronyan drew himself up to the second spot two rounds before the end of the Mexican part of an eight-man super tournament. ...WHAT MADE LEVON RUN?: WHY RETURN TO POLITICS? WHY NOW?
The possibility of the return to public politics was first considered by Levon Ter-Petrosyan on the threshold of the 2003 presidential election when the head of his office Levon Zurabyan hinted at the ...HISTORY REVISITED: SAME FORCES, DIFFERENT SIDES
Beating, stuffing, bribing and, as the press likes to describe it, tampering with figures. These have been the methods of election for the last 13 years, when the role of the democratic principle of one ...WHAT DO I PAY THEM FOR?: I WANT MY PROTEST TV!
On Wednesday, when pro-Levon Ter-Petrosyan activist Nikol Pashinyan challenged Armenian television stations to show footage from his hero’s mass protest rally I didn’t doubt the request would be met. ...THREE INTERNATIONAL OBSERVERS WALK INTO AN ELECTION, SEE . . .
Any more it doesn't matterWho's right or wrong We've been injuring each other For much too long Kris Kristofferson – Nobody Wins Let us thank God for the OSCE and the CIS and ...DECIPHERING THE VOTE: SOME HAPPY, SOME NOT, BUT EXTRAORDINARY BY ANY COUNT
This winter’s hot election campaign was crowned with a high voter activity on Election Day. About 70 percent of voters turned out, according to the Central Election Commission. While oppositionists now ...THIRD-PARTY VIEWPOINT: INTERNATIONAL OBSERVERS CALL ELECTION FAIR
The international observer missions qualified Tuesday’s presidential election in Armenia as generally “conforming to international standards” mentioning the noted violations cannot influence the results ...OLD CONFLICT, NEW CHALLENGES: ARMENIA’S POST-ELECTION CRISIS
Richard Giragosian
The Republic of Armenia is once again facing a post-election crisis. This is not news, considering past elections. But there are several aspects of this post-election crisis that are especially worrisome ...
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© AUA
Today in Armenian history- 1837 Creation of the Armenian Supreme Ecclesiastic Council in Echmiadsin - the Synod attached to the Catholicos of All-Armenians.
- 1909 Birth of Taras Toosoozyan in Yekaterinodar (now Krasnodar). He was a Major-General of the Soviet Army. He was the Military Commissar of the Armenian SSR from 1950 to 1969.
- 1931 The Central Affairs Committee decides to establish a Radio-Broadcasting Committee.
- 1932 Birth of architect Arthur Tarkhanyan in Leninakan (Gyoomree). He designed and implemented the "Tsitsernakabert" Genocide Memorial Complex, the "Airarat" (formerly "Rossiya") movie theater, the Palace of Youth, "Zvartnotss" Airport, and many other buildings.
- 1938 Birth of Artavazd Peleshyan in Leninakan (Gyoomree). He became a famous artist, State Prize Laureate, and a master of the documentary film genre .
- 1939 The Armenian Supreme Soviet awards the right to the Opera and Ballet Theater of Yerevan, to be called the Alexander Spendarian Opera and Ballet Theatre.
- 1960 The Armenian Theater Association in Beirut decides to be known as the Vahram Papazyan Association.
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