- Title: ARMENIA: VOTERS GO TO THE POLLS IN YEREVAN IN THE ELECTIONS.
- Date: 3rd March 2003
- Summary: (W4) YEREVAN, ARMENIA (MARCH 5, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. TRACK: OPENING OF POLLING FOR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS IN ARMENIA PITTING PRESIDENT ROBERT KOCHARYAN AGAINST OPPOSITION LEADER STEPAN DEMIRCHYAN, PRESIDENT ROBERT KOCHARYAN IN POLLING STATION, LEAVING POLLING BOOTH AND CASTING HIS BALLOT. 0.14 2. MV: PEOPLE CASTING BALLOTS. 0.18 3. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) ROBERT KOCHARYAN, OUTGOING ARMENIAN PRESIDENT, SAYING: "I am in a great mood. If there were no second tour, we would have to create it" 0.33 4. MLV/ZOOM IN: OPPOSITION LEADER STEPAN DEMIRCHAYN CASTING BALLOT. 0.45 5. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) STEPAN DEMIRCHYAN, ARMENIAN OPPOSITION LEADER, SAYING: "It is obvious already that the elections are carried out with falsifications and we cannot call them just, but we will keep watching them and will soon give our opinion on this." 1.05 6. MV: DEMIRCHYAN AND FAMILY LEAVING POLING STATION 1.13 7. VARIOUS: OF PEOPLE CASTING BALLOT, BALLOT BOX, PEOPLE QUEUING UP. (4 SHOTS) 1.41 (W4) YEREVAN, ARMENIA (MARCH 3, 2003) (REUTERS) 8. WS: PRE-ELECTION RALLY, SUPPORTERS OF ARMENIAN OPPOSITION LEADER STEPAN DEMIRCHYAN CROWDING IN SQUARE 1.47 9. MV: MAN HOLDING ARMENIAN NATIONAL FLAG. 1.52 10. SCU/WS: OPPOSITION LEADER STEPAN DEMIRCHYAN ON PODIUM. 2.06 11. SCU/PAN: PEOPLE CHANTING "DEMIRCHYAN, DEMIRCHYAN" 2.19 12. ELECTION RALLY FOR PRESIDENT ROBERT KOCHARYAN RALLY 13. WS: RALLY. 2.24 14. SCU: WOMAN HOLDING PORTRAIT OF PRESIDENT ROBERT KOCHARYAN. 2.28 15. WS/HAS: MORE OF RALLY. 2.36 16. MV: ROBERT KOCHARYAN ON PODIUM BEING PHOTOGRAPHED. 2.36 17. HAS/MLV: PEOPLE HOLDING FLAGS AND PORTRAITS OF KOCHARYAN. 2.46 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 18th March 2003 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: YEREVAN, ARMENIA
- Country: Armenia
- Reuters ID: LVA93BD07B2MH11UDQ7XFLS1X0DV
- Story Text: Armenians voted on Wednesday with a choice of either
sticking with President Robert Kocharyan, or replacing him
with opposition leader Stepan Demirchyan, who has already
accused his rival of vote-rigging.
Polling booths opened from 8 a.m. (0400 GMT) for 12
hours on Wednesday (March 5). Yerevan was quiet after days of
mass rallies by the opposition, who defied an official ban on
street protests.
"I am in a great mood. If there were no second tour we
would have to create it," said Kocharyan.
But the chance of an undisputed result looked dim after
the opposition rejected first-round results -- which nearly
gave Kocharyan, 48, an outright victory on February 19 -- and
took to the streets of Yerevan in protest.
"It is obvious already that the elections are carried out
with falsifications and we cannot call them just. But we will
keep watching them and will soon give our opinion on this,"
said Demirchyan.
The winner in Wednesday's poll will need a simple majority
of votes to become president. Armenia's president wields
considerable power.
More rallies looked set to follow Wednesday's vote, as
opinions differ on who should run the tiny landlocked Orthodox
state bordering Muslim Iran, Turkey, Azerbaijan and fellow
Christian Georgia.
Protesters accuse Kocharyan's supporters of stuffing
ballot boxes and intimidating voters. International observers
said they found less evidence of fraud than in previous
elections.
Demirchyan, son of a Soviet-era Armenian leader, scored
28.2 per cent in the first round, well behind the 49.5 per
cent for Kocharyan, who has been in office since 1998.
Artashes Geghamyan, who came third, has not endorsed
either finalists, but his voters now hold the key to the
run-off.
Voters in the Caucasus state have pushed economic issues
to the fore of the poll agenda, with widespread poverty
dogging much of the country and average monthly wages standing
at 40 U.S dollars.
But the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh still dominates
political life.
Karabakh has been administered by Azerbaijan since the
early 1920s, but in the early 1990s the largely Armenian
population forced out the Azeris after a war in which 35,000
people were killed. A ceasefire has been in force since 1994.
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