Sargsyan gains victory over Armenian people: think-tank
Presidential elections in Armenia ended with predictable results - the victory of incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan. However, the victory was won primarily over the Armenian people, director of the Center for Strategic Studies under the Azerbaijani President Farhad Mammadov said.
"Some 58 percent of votes were scored by the massive use of administrative resources and resources belonging to criminal authorities and oligarchs, who have gathered in the ranks of the Republican Party," Mammadov told Trend news agency.
He said after the main competitors of the incumbent president refused to participate in the elections, Sargsyan was actually left alone in the political arena.
"Through his absence from the country and his non participation in the election, the second President of Armenia, Robert Kocharian and his Prosperous Armenia Party along with other political organizations supporting him, showed that they do not want to participate in the legalization of Serzh Sarsgyan's presidency for the next five years," he said.
The main rival Raffi Hovannisian, who won 36 percent of the vote, never scored even 10 percent of the electorate support in polls, Mammadov said.
"According to OSCE observers, in the absence of his strongest rivals, the presence of many 'dead souls' on the voter lists and with the full support of the administration, Sargsyan could barely score the needed votes. Thus, one can say with certainty that future developments in Armenia will only heat up, and the government will again rely on the bayonets of the army and police, and keep its people in a half-starved, therefore, controlled state," Mammadov said.
Presidential elections were held in Armenia on Feb.18. The incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan won the elections scoring 58.64 per cent of the votes. First Foreign Minister of Armenia Raffi Hovannisian ranked second scoring 36.75 per cent, while former Prime Minister Grant Bagratyan ranked third scoring 2.15 per cent.