Armenian presidential election, 2003

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Armenian presidential election, 2003
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←  1998 March 5, 2003 (2003-03-05) 2008  →
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Nominee Robert Kocharyan Stepan Demirchyan
Party Independent People's Party of Armenia
Popular vote1,044,591504,011
Percentage67.45%32.55%
President before election

Robert Kocharyan

Elected President

Robert Kocharyan

Armenia
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This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
Armenia
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The 2003 Armenian Presidential election took place in Armenia on 19 February and 5 March 2003. No candidate received a majority in the first round of the election with the incumbent President Robert Kocharyan winning slightly under 50% of the vote. Therefore, a second round was held and Kocharyan defeated Stepan Demirchyan with official results showed him winning just over 67% of the vote. However both the opposition and international observers said that the election had seen significant amounts of electoral fraud and the opposition did not recognise the results of the election.

Armenia Republic in South Caucasus in West Asia

Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located in Western Asia on the Armenian Highlands, it is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia to the north, the de facto independent Republic of Artsakh and Azerbaijan to the east, and Iran and Azerbaijan's exclave of Nakhchivan to the south.

The incumbent is the current holder of an office. This term is usually used in reference to elections, in which races can often be defined as being between an incumbent and non-incumbent(s). For example, in the Hungarian presidential election, 2017, János Áder was the incumbent, because he had been the president in the term before the term for which the election sought to determine the president. A race without an incumbent is referred to as an open seat.

President of Armenia

The President of Armenia is the head of state and the guarantor of independence and territorial integrity of Armenia elected to a single seven year term by the National Assembly of Armenia. Under Armenia's parliamentary system, the President is simply a figurehead and holds ceremonial duties, with most of the political power vested in the Parliament and Prime Minister.

Contents

Background

Robert Kocharyan had been elected president in the 1998 presidential election defeating Karen Demirchyan. The election had been held when Levon Ter-Petrossian was forced to resign as President after agreeing to a plan to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which his ministers, including Kocharyan, had refused to accept. [1]

Karen Demirchyan Soviet politician

Karen Demirchyan was a Soviet and Armenian politician. He served as the First Secretary of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic from 1974 to 1988. Soon after his reemergence into active politics in independent Armenia in the late 1990s, he became President of the National Assembly in 1999 until his assassination with other politicians in parliament in the Armenian parliament shooting.

Nagorno-Karabakh War armed conflict that took place in the late 1980s to May 1994

The Nagorno-Karabakh War was an ethnic and territorial conflict that took place in the late 1980s to May 1994, in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in southwestern Azerbaijan, between the majority ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh backed by the Republic of Armenia, and the Republic of Azerbaijan. As the war progressed, Armenia and Azerbaijan, both former Soviet Republics, entangled themselves in a protracted, undeclared war in the mountainous heights of Karabakh as Azerbaijan attempted to curb the secessionist movement in Nagorno-Karabakh. The enclave's parliament had voted in favor of uniting itself with Armenia and a referendum, boycotted by the Azerbaijani population of Nagorno-Karabakh, was held, whereby most of the voters voted in favor of independence. The demand to unify with Armenia began in a relatively peaceful manner in 1988; in the following months, as the Soviet Union disintegrated, it gradually grew into an increasingly violent conflict between Armenians and Azerbaijanis, resulting in claims of ethnic cleansing by both sides.

On the 7 August 2002 the Central Election Commission of Armenia announced that the presidential election would be held on the 19 February 2003, [2] with nominations required by 6 December 2002. [3] Candidates had to supply 40,000 signatures of support in order to be able to stand in the election. [4]

President Kocharyan had already announced that he would be running for re-election and the opposition parties attempted to agree on a united candidate to oppose him but were unsuccessful. [3] Former President Levon Ter-Petrossian also contemplated running in the election but ultimately decided not to stand. [1]

First round

15 people announced that they would stand in election, but in the end 9 candidates stood in the first round of the presidential election. [5] Reporting in the media was seen as being one-sided, with a media monitoring organisation saying that President Kocharyan received about five times as much coverage during the campaign as all the other eight candidates combined. [6] Kocharyan campaigned on the record of economic growth during his presidency and got support from several political parties, while his campaign was run by the defence minister Serzh Sargsyan. [7] Kocharyan's leading opponent was Stepan Demirchyan, the leader of the People's Party of Armenia and the son of Karen Demirchyan, a former Soviet leader of Armenia and speaker of the Armenian parliament who had been assassinated in 1999. [6] [7] Demirchyan ran in the election as an anti-corruption candidate. [8] The other leading candidate was Artashes Geghamyan a former mayor of Yerevan, from the National Unity party. [7]

A media monitoring service, a press clipping service or a clipping service as known in earlier times, provides clients with copies of media content, which is of specific interest to them and subject to changing demand; what they provide may include documentation, content, analysis, or editorial opinion, specifically or widely. These services tend to specialize their coverage by subject, industry, size, geography, publication, journalist, or editor. The printed sources, which could be readily monitored, greatly expanded with the advent of telegraphy and submarine cables in the mid- to late-19th century; the various types of media now available proliferated in the 20th century, with the development of radio, television, the photocopier and the World Wide Web. Though media monitoring is generally used for capturing content or editorial opinion, it also may be used to capture advertising content.

Serzh Sargsyan 3rd President of Armenia

Serzh Sargsyan is an Armenian politician who served twice as the Prime Minister of Armenia and was the third President of Armenia, from 2008 to 2018. He won the February 2008 presidential election with the backing of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia, a party in which he serves as chairman, and took office in April 2008. On 18 February 2013, he was re-elected as president and served the entire term.

Stepan Demirchyan Armenian politician

Stepan Demirchyan is an Armenian politician and son of the Communist-era Armenian leader Karen Demirchyan.

Opinion polls in the run up to the election showed President Kocharyan as likely to win the 50% required in order to avoid a second round. [9] Early results showed Kocharyan winning over half of the vote, [8] but the final results of the first round showed that he had just failed to meet that target and so was forced into a second round against Stepan Demirchyan. [10] [11] This was first time any incumbent president in the Commonwealth of Independent States had failed to win in the first round of an election. [12]

Opinion poll type of survey

An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a poll or a survey, is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of questions and then extrapolating generalities in ratio or within confidence intervals.

Commonwealth of Independent States regional organisation whose participating countries are former Soviet Republics

The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional intergovernmental organization of 10 post-Soviet republics in Eurasia formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It has an area of 20,368,759 km² and has an estimated population of 239,796,010. The CIS encourages cooperation in economical, political and military affairs and has certain powers to coordinate trade, finance, lawmaking and security. It has also promoted cooperation on cross-border crime prevention.

See-through ballot boxes were used to try to minimise any fraud in the election. [9] However the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which had sent 200 election monitors to observe the election, described the lead up to the election as having "fell short of international standards in several key respects". [6] [8] [11] Opposition observers at polling stations reported that ballot stuffing in favour of President Kocharyan had taken place and one member of the OSCE observers was reported as having described the election as "a disaster". [6]

Second round

Some opposition supporters called on Demirchyan to boycott the second round but despite taking part in protests over the conduct of the first round he did participate in the election. [12] Most of the opposition parties rallied behind Demirchyan in the election and a television debate took place between the two candidates. [13] Kocharyan called on voters in the second round to give him "a convincing victory that no-one can question". [14] The official results saw President Kocharyan winning just over two thirds of vote in the second round and thus he was re-elected. [15]

As in the first round the OSCE reported significant amounts of electoral fraud and numerous supporters of Demirchyan were arrested before the second round took place. [15] Demirchyan described the election as having been rigged and called on his supporters to rally against the results. [16] Tens of thousands of Armenians protested in the days after the election against the results and called on President Kocharyan to step down. [15] However Kocharyn was sworn in for a second term in early April and the constitutional court upheld the election, while recommending that a referendum be held within a year to confirm the election result. [17] [18]

Results

CandidatePartyFirst roundSecond round
Votes%Votes%
Robert Kocharyan Independent 710,67449.481,044,59167.45
Stepan Demirchyan People's Party of Armenia 399,75728.22504,01132.55
Artashes Geghamyan National Unity 250,14517.66
Aram Karapetyan Independent41,7952.95
Vazgen Manukyan National Democratic Union 12,9040.91
Ruben Avagyan Unified Armenians Party 5,7880.41
Aram Sargsyan Democratic Party of Armenia 3,0340.21
Garnik MargaryanMotherland and Dignity1,2720.09
Aram HarutyunyanNational Accord Party8540.06
Invalid/blank votes37,276–14,469–
Total1,463,4991001,563,071100
Registered voters/turnout2,315,41063.212,331,50767.04
Source: IFES

Protests

2003-2004 Armenian protests
Part of the impact of the Georgian Rose Revolution [19]
DateFebruary 20, 2003 – April 21, 2004
(1 year, 2 months and 1 day)
Location Yerevan, Armenia
Caused byalleged electoral fraud during
Goalsresignation of President Robert Kocharyan and new general elections
Methods demonstrations
Resulted inProtests suppressed by force
Parties to the civil conflict
Lead figures
Robert Kocharyan (President)
Andranik Margaryan (PM)
Artur Baghdasaryan (Parliament Speaker)
UNKNOWN (Police Chief)


See also

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References

  1. 1 2 "Armenia: Former President Mulls Political Comeback". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty . 2002-08-08. Retrieved 2009-05-23.
  2. ↑ "Armenian election dates set". Central Asia-Caucasus Institute . 2002-08-08. Retrieved 2009-05-23.
  3. 1 2 "Former Armenian president seeking opposition support for comeback". Eurasianet.org. 2002-11-19. Retrieved 2009-05-23.
  4. ↑ "Caucasus Report: November 14, 2002". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty . 2002-11-14. Retrieved 2009-05-23.
  5. ↑ "US watches presidential poll in oil-rich region". The Independent. 2003-02-19. p. 11.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "Europe: Democracy, it's wonderful; Armenia's presidential vote". The Economist. 2003-02-22. p. 44.
  7. 1 2 3 "Armenia's opposition: plurality and conflict". Eurasianet.org. 2002-12-30. Archived from the original on September 4, 2008. Retrieved 2009-05-23.
  8. 1 2 3 "Armenia poll goes to run-off". BBC Online . 2003-02-20. Retrieved 2009-05-23.
  9. 1 2 "Incumbent President set for ballot success". The Independent. 2003-02-20. p. 13.
  10. ↑ "Election goes to second round run-off". The Independent. 2003-02-21. p. 13.
  11. 1 2 "Armenian election race hots up". BBC Online . 2003-02-21. Retrieved 2009-05-23.
  12. 1 2 "Caucasus Report: March 3, 2003". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty . 2003-03-03. Archived from the original on 18 May 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-23.
  13. ↑ "The implications of Armenia's post-election crisis". The New York Times . 2003-03-19. Archived from the original on September 4, 2008. Retrieved 2009-05-23.
  14. ↑ "Armenia poll race reaches climax". BBC Online . 2003-03-03. Retrieved 2009-05-23.
  15. 1 2 3 Stern, David (2003-03-07). "Anger at 'flawed' poll in Armenia". Financial Times. p. 4.
  16. ↑ "Incumbent 'wins' Armenia vote". BBC Online . 2003-03-06. Retrieved 2009-05-23.
  17. ↑ "Armenia: President Sworn In Amid Protests". The New York Times . 2003-04-10. Retrieved 2009-05-23.
  18. ↑ "Constitutional court stirs Armenian political controversy". Eurasianet.org. 2003-04-23. Retrieved 2009-05-23.
  19. ↑ Danielyan, Karine (13 March 2004). Երկու նախագահների առաջին հանդիպումը. Azg Daily (in Armenian). Retrieved 20 June 2013.
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