Azernews.Az

By Sabina Idayatova

The presidential elections held in Armenia on Monday ended unsurprisingly. The preliminary tallies issued by the Armenian Central Election Commission (CEC) showed that incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan will be in charge of the destitute Armenian nation for the next five years.

Seven candidates participated in the presidential race despite deeming the election process as unfounded and unfair. According to the CEC`s preliminary data, incumbent president Sargsyan, who chairs the ruling Republican Party, won with 861,160 of the votes (58.64 percent). The breakdown of votes for the other six election hopefuls is as follows: Heritage party chairman Raffi Hovannisyan got 36.75 percent; former PM Hrant Bagratyan 2.15 percent; National Self-Determination Union party head Paruyr Hayrikyan 1.23 percent; Andrias Ghukasyan 0.57 percent; Vardan Sedrakyan 0.42 percent; Arman Melikyan 0.24 percent.

Final results of the presidential elections will be summed up on February 25, 2013.

More than 1.518 million or 60.05 per cent of voters came to the polls. Voters had been urged forcefully to participate and to vote in favor of the incumbent president by means of money, blackmail and even with ballots specifying the name of Sargsyan.

But Sargsyan did not face tough competition during these elections compared with the previous poll in 2008 when the main opponent was Armenia's first president Levon Ter-Petrosyan and the election was followed by large-scale riots in which dozens of people were killed or injured.

The key opposition politicians -- the leader of the Armenian National Congress Ter-Petrosyan, the chairman of the Prosperous Armenia Party Gagik Tsarukyan and former president Robert Kocharyan -- refused to stand in the elections.

Moreover, during his five years of presidency Sargsyan did not lead Armenia to a promising future.

The Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh remains unresolved; Armenia remains in an economic blockade; the socio-economic situation has become even worse; the national debt has increased and reached 40 percent of GDP; the country remains without labor force because of rampant migration, etc.

Sargsyan's only trump card before the nation is his policy of invasion of Azerbaijani territories and not giving back a single patch of the occupied lands as well as asking other countries to support the Armenian lies both financially and morally.

The pre-election campaign in Armenia, which started Jan.21 and lasted until Feb.16, was remembered by rows, which not only complicated the already tense political situation, but also caused utmost concern among the people, reducing public confidence in the future of the state.

The election campaign was marred by the candidates' statements over withdrawal from the presidential race. Also, hunger strikes and even an armed attack on one of the candidates shows the state of political intolerance in Armenia.

The elections were observed by 6,251 representatives from 26 local public organizations and 632 observers from 12 international organizations, including OSCE ODIHR, CIS, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly, International Expert Center for Electoral Systems (ICES) and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES).

OSCE representative Carin Woldseth noted at a joint press conference of the international missions of the OSCE, PACE and the European Parliament held in Yerevan on Tuesday that the lack of impartiality on the part of the public administration and the misuse of administrative resources resulted in a blurred distinction between the activities of the state and those of the ruling party.

During the address by one of the news conference participants, a young woman jumping up to the rostrum began voicing political statements. The representatives of international organizations attending the press conference walked out of the room.

One of the posters held by an activist said "stop supporting the rigged elections".

Rallies in front of the CEC started in the capital Yerevan on election day, with protesters demanding to stop electoral fraud and pledging to continue protesting until the demands were fulfilled.