Reports suggest that no surprises
should be expected from Armenian Presidential elections which are to be held
tomorrow. President Serzh Sarksyan, the handpicked successor of former
President Robert Kocharian, who is coming to the end of his first five-year
term in power is on course to further solidify his stranglehold over Armenian
politics if he gains the more than 60 per cent of the popular vote of which he
has been projected by election opinion pollsters operating within the country.
The 60 per cent tally, if reports are to be believed, will see Mr. Sarksyan win
a greater percentage of the votes than he did in 2008.
The lead up to the elections has
been plagued by allegations of electoral malpractice, fraud and lack of
transparency in the system. The lack of confidence in the system, allied with
further concerns about the credibility of the elections have inevitably led to
fears of low voter turnout, the result of boycotts by eligible voters. These worries
have been recognised by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe who
stated, following last month’s visit to the country, that some of the major
political parties which had been “strongly expected to present Presidential
candidates, chose not to do so because of their lack of trust in the conduct of
the election.”
It would be unfair to highlight
the pre-election difficulties facing the nation without noting that the country
has successfully circumvented the wide scale disturbance which ensued in the
course of the last Presidential elections held in February 2008. Nevertheless,
recent elections have been tainted by the rather unsavoury assassination
attempt on one of the election candidates, Paruyr Hayrikyan, who was shot in
the shoulder on 31st
January 2013 . Luckily the bullet missed Mr. Hayrikyan’s vitals and
he has lived to tell the proverbial tale. Further controversy and questions
have also been raised about the credibility of the elections with one
candidate, Arman Melikyan boycotting the election on the basis that the results
had already been predetermined, and another, Andrias Ghukasyan, embarking on a
hunger strike and seeking the annulment of the incumbent’s candidacy on account
of alleged malpractice.
The country, which won independence
from its parent nation the Soviet Union in 1991, has failed to live up to the
promise which many believed it once possessed pre-independence with poverty and
unemployment remaining rife and without any effective programmes being devised
by the government to tackle these twin ills. Its economic situation has not
been eased by long running conflicts with its neighbours, namely Turkey
and Azerbaijan ,
which has in effect resulted in the imposition of economic blockades which has
hampered its growth and development.
Its conflict with Turkey
emanates from Turkey ’s
refusal to acknowledge allegations of genocide perpetrated by their troops
against ethnic Armenians between 1915 and 1917. Armenia ’s
dispute with Azerbaijan
on the other hand, is the result of claims over the border region of
Nagorno-Karabakh. A fragile ceasefire has remained in place since 1994’s
ceasefire between both nations. Against the background of both internal and
external turmoil facing the nation, one hopes that next week’s election passes
off peacefully and without incident. If this occurs, it may well set the
country on the road to achieving the promises which many felt it held
pre-independence and immediately after its independence in 1991.
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