YEREVAN
Incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan won elections in Armenia with 58.64 per cent of the votes. Central Election Board declared vote-count ended and Sargsyan will be president for five more years.
The strongest rival of Sargsyan has been the former foreign minister Raffi Hovhannissian who got 36 per cent.
60 per cent of the registered voters have participated in the elections.
Official results will be published on February 25th.
Despite the results of the counting runner-up Hovhannissian declared his "victory" and president Sargsyan's aides quickly responded saying "Sargsyan has won convincingly."
Silence of Sargsyan brings doubt over "victory"
Incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan triumphed the Armenian presidential election with 58.64 percent of the vote.
Winning second consecutive election victory, Sargsyan will be the president of Armenia for five more years. However, silence dominates the country as supporters of Sargsyan haven't celebrated the victory.
Although Sargsyan triumphed over his rival with 22 percent, Sargsyan didn't go to the headquarters of the Republican Party following the results of the polls and didn't make a statement, which took great attention.
On the other hand, the question of whether the silence would still continue after his strongest rival former foreign minister Raffi Hovhannissian who got 36 percent declared his "victory".
One other point that draws attention is the votes of leader of the Union for National Self-Determination Paruyr Hayrikyan being stuck at 1.3 percent which shows that the armed attack against him did not influence the voters.
It is not difficult to guess Armenia and Russia will be in close cooperation in the new term especially in security related matters, because Sargsyan defined their relations as "strategic" with Russia whereas he defined their relationship with USA and EU to be in the framework of "good neighbors."
One of the arguments of Sargsyan during his propaganda was Nagorno Karabakh, Azeri land under occupation. There seems very low possibility of any move to resolve the Nagorno Karabakh conflict in the new term as Sargsyan has always claimed it belonged to Armenia and as he will have Russian support.
