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  • Sarkisian leaves rivals behind

    What the Papers Say (Russia)
    January 18, 2008 Friday



    SARKISJAN LEAVES RIVALS BEHIND

    by Ivan Preobrazhensky
    PRESS EXTRACTS; No. 9

    THE OPPOSITION IN ARMENIA SPLIT AND DIVIDED, PRIME MINISTER IS
    DETERMINED TO WIN PRESIDENCY IN THE FIRST ROUND; Armenian Prime
    Minister Sarkisjan is determined to be the next president. Opinion
    polls show that his aspirations are not groundless at all.

    Armenia will be electing the president on February 19. Political
    opposition split and divided, Yerevan's prime candidate (prime
    minister) Serzh Sarkisjan is determined to win the election in the
    very first round.

    Sarkisjan was nominated for president by the Republican Party that
    won the parliamentary election in 2007. Levon Ter-Petrosjan,
    ex-president whose regime was toppled in 1998, is one of his
    opponents.

    Nine candidates applied for participation in the presidential race.
    The first observers representing the OSCE are already in Yerevan. Two
    hundred and fifty foreign observers are expected, ten of them will be
    representing the CIS Parliamentary Assembly.

    Opinion polls conducted by Sociometer Center indicate that Sarkisjan
    will poll nearly 65% in the very first round and therefore win
    presidency. Ter-Petrosjan will poll 7.7% or so. According to
    Sociometer Center Director Agaron Adibekjan, Arthur Bagdasarjan
    (leader of the Orinats Erkir party and ex-chairman of the national
    parliament) will poll 9.5%. Bagdasarjan meanwhile is known as a
    pro-European politician, Sarkisjan as pro-Russian.

    President Robert Kocharjan is not permitted to run for another term
    of office. Odds are he will become the head of ArmRosGazprom or get a
    job elsewhere (the way former chancellor of Germany Gerhard Schroeder
    was offered a job with Nord Stream). Insiders do not think that he
    will become prime minister.

    Source: Vedomosti, January 18, 2008, p. A2

    Translated by A. Ignatkin
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