Serious voting violations marred Armenia’s presidential election this week and could invalidate the final result if they are repeated in the runoff, international monitors said Wednesday.
Prime Minister Robert Kocharian, 43, and Karen Demirchian, 65, the country’s Soviet-era Communist Party boss, received the most votes in Monday’s national election and face a second-round vote on March 30. With 93 percent of the vote counted, Kocharian had 39 percent to Demirchian’s 32 percent. Ten other candidates took part, but none polled above 12 percent.
International monitors said violations appeared to be smaller and uncoordinated this time, but the voting process still fell short of Western standards. The largest group of observers, from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, reported “significant violations” in 15 percent of precincts, including ballot box-stuffing and the presence of undercover government agents in polling stations.
Armenia awaits a new leader to rebuild the economy and resolve the stalemate with Azerbaijan over the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh region. Armenia’s former leader, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, lost his presidency over Nagorno-Karabakh and other issues.
