Armenian presidential election, 1998

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Armenian presidential election, 1998
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  Robert Kocharyan's Interveiw, 2003.jpg Karen Demirchyan 1999.png
Nominee Robert Kocharyan Karen Demirchyan
Party Independent Armenian Socialist Party
Popular vote908,613618,764
Percentage58.9%40.1%
President before election

Levon Ter-Petrosyan

Elected President

Robert Kocharyan

Presidential elections were held in Armenia on 16 March 1998, with a second round on 30 March. [1] The result was a victory for independent candidate Robert Kocharyan, who won 58.9% of the vote in the second round. Turnout was 63.5% in the first round and 68.1% in the second. [2]

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.

Robert Kocharyan second President of Armenia

Robert Kocharyan is an Armenian politician who served as the second President of Armenia between 1998 and 2008. He was previously President of Nagorno-Karabakh from 1994 to 1997 and Prime Minister of Armenia from 1997 to 1998. He was arrested on December 7, 2018.

Contents

Overview

The first round was held on 16 March 1998. [3] Prime Minister and acting President Robert Kocharyan and Karen Demirchyan, the leader of Soviet Armenia from 1974 to 1988, won the most number of votes: 38.5% and 30.5% respectively. [4] Demirchyan, who came in second, had been absent from politics for 10 years and had been in business. [5]

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.

Demirchyan was seen as a good old man from the Soviet times who could "return to the certainties of the past and distaste for mafia capitalism personified by Ter-Petrosyan's rule." [5] Demirchyan was very popular among the Armenian public. [6] [7] [8] A poll quoted by Western diplomats, showed that Demirchyan had the support of the 53% of Armenians, while Kocharyan was favored by only 36%. [9] He was also preferable for the West, since he had more moderate approach to the Karabakh conflict settlement, while Kocharyan was seen as a vivid nationalist. [5]

The second round of the election was held on March 30 between Kocharyan and Demirchyan. Kocharyan won with 58.9% of the vote. The final results showed Demirchyan having only 40.1% of the vote. [4] The British Helsinki Human Rights Group claimed that "ordinary Armenians turned to Robert Kocharian as someone untainted by mafia connections and the intrigues of Yerevan politics." [5] The OSCE observation mission described the first round as "deeply flawed," [10] while their final report stated that the mission found "serious flaws" and that the election did not meet the OSCE standards. [11] Although Demirchyan didn't officially dispute the election results, he never accepted them and did not congratulate Kocharyan. [12] [13]

The British Helsinki Human Rights Group is an Oxford-based non-governmental organization which claims to monitor human rights in the 56 participating States of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Despite its name, the organisation is not affiliated to the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights. BHHRG has been critical of what it characterizes as Western interference in imposing democracy, and claims to support the right of political independence from the west of a number of Communist and post-Communist regimes, as well as of a number of African dictators.

Results

CandidatePartyFirst roundSecond round
Votes%Votes%
Robert Kocharyan Independent545,93838.5908,61358.9
Karen Demirchyan Socialist Party431,96730.5618,76440.1
Vazgen Manukyan National Democratic Union 172,44912.2
Sergey Badalyan Armenian Communist Party 155,02310.9
Paruyr Hayrikyan Union for National Self-Determination 76,2125.4
David ShamazaryanIndependent6,7980.5
Artashes Geghamyan National Accord Party6,3140.4
Vigen Khachatryan Democratic Liberal Party of Armenia 3,9990.3
Hrant Khachatryan Constitutional Rights Union 2,9430.2
Aram Gaspar Sargsyan Democratic Party of Armenia 2,7100.2
Yuri MkrtchyanIndependent2,5110.2
Ashot Bleyan New Path1,5590.1
None of the above9,5090.714,8901.0
Invalid/blank votes38,177-25,435-
Total1,456,1091001,567,702100
Source: Nohlen et al.

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References

  1. ↑ Nohlen, D, Grotz, F & Hartmann, C (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume I, p329 ISBN   0-19-924958-X
  2. ↑ Nohlen, D, Grotz, F & Hartmann, C (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume I, p337 ISBN   0-19-924958-X
  3. ↑ "Armenians to choose new president today". Hürriyet Daily News . 16 March 1998. Retrieved 15 April 2013.
  4. 1 2 "Summer 1998". Elections Today. International Foundation for Electoral Systems. 7 (4): 26. ISSN   1073-6719.
  5. 1 2 3 4 The Armenian Parliamentary Elections, 30th May 1999 (PDF). British Helsinki Human Rights Group. pp. 1–2. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
  6. ↑ Reeve, Philip (16 March 1998). "Slick old fox set for comeback in Armenia poll". The Independent . Retrieved 15 April 2013.
  7. ↑ "Armenians vote for president Monday". CNN. 15 March 1998. Retrieved 31 March 2013.
  8. ↑ "Strong turnout as Armenians choose president". CNN. 16 March 1998. Retrieved 31 March 2013.
  9. ↑ Bennett, Vanora (31 March 1998). "Armenians Vote for New President". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 17 April 2013.
  10. ↑ "Armenian elections go to run-off". BBC News. 19 March 1998. Retrieved 8 April 2013.
  11. ↑ "Republic of Armenian Presidential Election March 16 and 30, 1998 Final Report". Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. 9 April 1998. Retrieved 8 April 2013.
  12. ↑ Report on Armenia's parliamentary election May 30, 1999. Washington, DC: Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. p. 5. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
  13. ↑ "Key Armenian leaders assassinated". The Jamestown Foundation. 28 October 1999. Retrieved 25 May 2013. Although he considered himself cheated of victory, Demirchian tacitly accepted that outcome, bid his time and ultimately went for a deal with the party of power--Sarkisian's Republicans.
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