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ARMENIAN PRESIDENT WINS RE-ELECTION, EXIT POLL SHOWS (YEREVAN)
NorthJersey.com
Feb 18 2013
Monday February 18, 2013, 1:46 PM
SARA KHOJOYAN
Associated Press, Bloomberg News.
YEREVAN, Armenia - Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan won a second
term in an election that's been dominated by one candidate's attempted
assassination and another's hunger strike.
Sargsyan won with 58 percent of the vote to 32 percent for Raffi
Hohanisyan, his closest competitor, Rasa Alisauskiene, director of
General Baltic Surveys at the Gallup Organization said on ArmNews
TV, citing an exit poll. Gallup surveyed 19,130 people with a 1
percentage-point margin of error, she said.
Sargsyan's victory tightens his grip after his Republican Party won
a parliamentary ballot last year in the country that borders Iran and
Turkey and fought a war with neighbor Azerbaijan over a disputed region
two decades ago. While the president failed to alleviate poverty that
afflicts a third of Armenia's three million people, the $10 billion
economy is forecast to grow more than 4 percent in 2013.
"Experience shows that Armenians prefer leaving the country instead
of voicing their protest," said Tatul Hakobyan, a political analyst
at Civilitas Foundation in Yerevan. "People have grown indifferent
about elections after seeing over the past 20 years elections that
were neither free nor fair."
GDP will jump 6.2 percent this year after rising 7.2 percent in 2011,
the government predicts. That's more optimistic than the European
Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank, which
estimate growth of 5 percent and 4.3 percent, respectively.
Armenia, whose exports include zinc, copper and semi- precious
stones, relies on its far-flung diaspora to support the economy, with
remittances accounting for about 20 percent of its economic output,
according to Commerzbank.
Armenia's dram has lost 4.4 percent against the dollar over the past
year compared with a 0.2 percent drop for the lari in neighboring
Georgia and an advance of 0.2 percent for the Azeri manat, data
compiled by Bloomberg show.
Paruyr Hayrikyan, a former dissident who was shot and wounded in a
Jan. 31 incident, had 3 percent backing, as did former Prime Minister
Hrant Bagratyan, according to Gallup. Andrias Ghukasyan, who hasn't
eaten in about a month and called the ballot "fake," got 1 percent,
along with the remaining two candidates, it said.
Local election observers and non-government organizations registered
more than 400 violations as of 5 p.m. Monday in Yerevan. The
infringements included ballot stuffing and attempts to vote more than
once, they said.
Sargsyan grew up in Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous region that broke
free of Azerbaijan's control after the 1991 Soviet collapse and is a
frequent source of tension between the two nations. His 2008 election
win triggered bloody scenes as 10 people died amid clashes between
opposition protesters and police.
Ghukasyan, a lawyer and radio station head, has refused to call off
his hunger strike unless he's visited by Health Minister Derenik
Dumanyan. In a show of solidarity, nine people began a sit-in protest
behind the National Academy of Science Monday.
http://www.northjersey.com/news/international/191700771_Armenian_President_Wins_Re-Election__Exit_Poll_Shows__Yerevan_.html?page=all
From: A. Papazian
NorthJersey.com
Feb 18 2013
Monday February 18, 2013, 1:46 PM
SARA KHOJOYAN
Associated Press, Bloomberg News.
YEREVAN, Armenia - Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan won a second
term in an election that's been dominated by one candidate's attempted
assassination and another's hunger strike.
Sargsyan won with 58 percent of the vote to 32 percent for Raffi
Hohanisyan, his closest competitor, Rasa Alisauskiene, director of
General Baltic Surveys at the Gallup Organization said on ArmNews
TV, citing an exit poll. Gallup surveyed 19,130 people with a 1
percentage-point margin of error, she said.
Sargsyan's victory tightens his grip after his Republican Party won
a parliamentary ballot last year in the country that borders Iran and
Turkey and fought a war with neighbor Azerbaijan over a disputed region
two decades ago. While the president failed to alleviate poverty that
afflicts a third of Armenia's three million people, the $10 billion
economy is forecast to grow more than 4 percent in 2013.
"Experience shows that Armenians prefer leaving the country instead
of voicing their protest," said Tatul Hakobyan, a political analyst
at Civilitas Foundation in Yerevan. "People have grown indifferent
about elections after seeing over the past 20 years elections that
were neither free nor fair."
GDP will jump 6.2 percent this year after rising 7.2 percent in 2011,
the government predicts. That's more optimistic than the European
Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank, which
estimate growth of 5 percent and 4.3 percent, respectively.
Armenia, whose exports include zinc, copper and semi- precious
stones, relies on its far-flung diaspora to support the economy, with
remittances accounting for about 20 percent of its economic output,
according to Commerzbank.
Armenia's dram has lost 4.4 percent against the dollar over the past
year compared with a 0.2 percent drop for the lari in neighboring
Georgia and an advance of 0.2 percent for the Azeri manat, data
compiled by Bloomberg show.
Paruyr Hayrikyan, a former dissident who was shot and wounded in a
Jan. 31 incident, had 3 percent backing, as did former Prime Minister
Hrant Bagratyan, according to Gallup. Andrias Ghukasyan, who hasn't
eaten in about a month and called the ballot "fake," got 1 percent,
along with the remaining two candidates, it said.
Local election observers and non-government organizations registered
more than 400 violations as of 5 p.m. Monday in Yerevan. The
infringements included ballot stuffing and attempts to vote more than
once, they said.
Sargsyan grew up in Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous region that broke
free of Azerbaijan's control after the 1991 Soviet collapse and is a
frequent source of tension between the two nations. His 2008 election
win triggered bloody scenes as 10 people died amid clashes between
opposition protesters and police.
Ghukasyan, a lawyer and radio station head, has refused to call off
his hunger strike unless he's visited by Health Minister Derenik
Dumanyan. In a show of solidarity, nine people began a sit-in protest
behind the National Academy of Science Monday.
http://www.northjersey.com/news/international/191700771_Armenian_President_Wins_Re-Election__Exit_Poll_Shows__Yerevan_.html?page=all
From: A. Papazian