Armenian Prime Minister Serge Sarksyan has won the election amid protests by the nearest rival camp. Chief opponent, Levon Ter-Petrosyan; Armenia’s first president after the independence from the Soviet Union was able to garner only 21.5% votes, whereas the close ally of the outgoing President Robert Kocharyan, Sarksyan amassed 52.86%.
The electioneering was dominated by the economic revival of the country and resolving issues related to Nagorno-Karabakh. The mountainous region, Nagorno-Karabakh is in the neighboring Azerbaijan and is under ethnic Armenian control since a cease-fire ended six years of fighting in 1994.
Sarksyan is expected get the support of the huge Armenian diaspora in the US who were successful in lobbying for the independence of Kosovo. Since the separation from Soviet Union in 1991, the Armenians in the US have pumped in $1.7 billion in aid into the country. More money is expected to flow to re-build the country which has a population of 3.2 million. The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe observed that the poll was held in line with international democratic standards. Yet Poll observers from a Russian-led group of former Soviet Republics gave room for speculation by putting it as ‘free and open’ election.
Armenia is strategically important because it is situated between the energy-rich Caspian Sea and the gas and oil markets of southern Europe. Besides, present political developments in the neighboring Iran, add on to their strategic status. The government will have to immediately address to the problems of unemployment and should resolve the prolonged bitter relations with the neighboring Turkey and Azerbaijan to improve the economy. Analysts opine that, though Sarksyan has won the election by a comfortable margin, it will be hard to run the government machinery smoothly unless he is able to reconcile with Ter-Petrosyan.