YEREVAN, Feb 20 (Reuters) – Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sarksyan has won a clear victory in a presidential election, according to official figures, but opposition parties prepared protests on Wednesday, saying the contest was rigged.
Sarksyan, who has vowed to continue the policies of his ally, incumbent president Robert Kocharyan, took 52.86 percent of the votes, the Central Election Committee said. This was enough for outright victory in the first round.
Landlocked Armenia lies high in the Caucasus mountains between Turkey and Azerbaijan, two states with which it has strained relations. The ex-Soviet republic has emerged as an important transit region for oil exports from the Caspian Sea to world markets but lacks significant resources of its own.
Sarksyan’s nearest challenger, former president Levon Ter- Petrosyan, won 21.5 percent of the votes, according to preliminary official figures.
Current president Kocharyan congratulated Sarksyan on his victory in what he called free and fair elections.
But the opposition alleged that ballot-stuffing and beating of its supporters had marred the vote and called protests later in the day. A note on Ter-Petrosyan’s campaign website said he had won the election.
“Today there will be a massive protest,” said Nikol Pashinyan, an aide to Ter-Petrosyan. “It will be a crime if we let power and our country stay in the hands of the regime of Sergh Sarksyan and Robert Kocharyan.”
Ter-Petrosyan, who accuses the present administration of tolerating corruption, failing to uphold the rule of law and pushing Armenia into international isolation, was Armenia’s first president after the collapse of the Soviet Unio! n.
&n bsp; He ruled from 1991 until 1998, when he resigned under pressure and ceded power to Kocharyan.
preliminary results of the presidential election. CEC chairman Garegin Azaryan said 1,669,818 votes were counted and that the nine candidates received the following votes: