Armenian President Set to Win Re-Election

VoA – News
Monday 18th February, 2013

Exit polls say Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan is set to be re-elected to a second term in office.

Polls show the incumbent leader received nearly 60 percent of Monday’s vote. His nearest rival, former foreign minister Raffi Hovannisian, trailed with just over 30 percent.

Mr. Sargsyan’s expected victory would give another five years to the already 13-year rule of his Republican Party in the small Caucasus nation.

In a rarity for the former Soviet republics, Armenia was having a genuine multi-party contest. The race, however, has been rocky for the landlocked nation of about 3 million people.

Of the eight original candidates, one dropped out, a second refused to vote, a third also refused to vote and went on a hunger strike, a fourth was shot and wounded in an apparent assassination attempt, and a fifth feared arrest after Monday’s vote because he knew the suspected shooter.

Of the last remaining candidates, two were charging fraud even before the first ballot was cast.

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