Flight of the wooden eagle

Armenia elected a new president

Presidential elections took place in Armenia on Tuesday . According to the Central Election Commission, Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan will win. At the time the number was signed, about 1 percent of the votes had been counted. After the polling stations closed, the first data from an exit-poll conducted by the British sociological company Populus were made public. According to these data, the most likely winner of the presidential race is the current Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan , gaining 57.01%. With this result, Sargsyan wins the elections in the first round. In second place, according to the survey, is the first President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan (17.04%). The third place is occupied by the ex-speaker of parliament, leader of the Orinats-Yerkir party Artur Baghdasaryan (14.6%).

However, already in the first half of Tuesday afternoon it was obvious that the results would be disputed by supporters of the opposition candidate of the first President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan. In the meantime, residents of Yerevan are wondering how the two rallies planned by the rivals for today will end and will begin within walking distance of each other. The possible outcome still remains unclear: the opposition rally may well linger on the square in front of the Matenadaran (Institute of Ancient Manuscripts - Ed. ) for several days and gradually melt away like spring snow, along with the political authority of the opposition leaders, or may result in a real revolution. Both the government and the opposition, in essence, found themselves in a situation where each side had two options: complete victory or political death. Vremya Novostei special correspondent Ivan SUKHOV followed the course of the elections in Yerevan.

Holding elections on a weekday is the idea of ​​Armenian political strategists: people should not sacrifice their legal day off for voting. In fact, the date is chosen strictly in accordance with the law - 50 days before the end of the powers of the current president. This time the coincidence turned out to be very successful - the day the preliminary results were announced, Wednesday, February 20, coincides with the 20th anniversary of the Karabakh movement: on this day in 1988, deputies of the regional council of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region of Azerbaijan, populated predominantly by Armenians, demanded annexation of autonomy to Armenia. Then there were pogroms in Baku and Sumgait, the introduction of allied troops, the collapse of the Soviet Union and several years of war for the independence of Karabakh. A war that has become the main symbol of the modern history of Armenia. Current political opponents Serzh Sargsyan (then Minister of Defense of Armenia) and Levon Ter-Petrosyan (then President and Commander-in-Chief) are today challenging each other for this symbol.

Tuesday was colder and windier than the previous few days. Either the weather or the importance of the moment made the streets of Yerevan almost empty in the morning. Ordinary crowded life gradually returned to the city closer to the afternoon, when the elections, in the words of one of the election staff of Serge Sargsyan, “crossed the equator.”

On this non-school day, one of the schools in the center of Yerevan nevertheless lived according to a schedule: at 11 o'clock in the morning the current president Robert Kocharyan voted here, at noon - with a slight advance - his official successor Serzh Sargsyan, and at one o'clock in the afternoon - Levon Ter-Petrosyan. According to Armenian election law, no more than 15 voters can be inside a polling station at one time, so voters lined up outside the door and watched with interest as a multi-tiered swarm of journalists swirled inside with microphones, television cameras and cameras.

The three main characters - the outgoing president and two contenders - in a nutshell made one feel the full tension of the situation. Robert Kocharyan suggested that no one had any doubts about who he voted for, and indeed he made his political leanings clear on public television on the last evening allotted for campaigning. Informed Yerevan television viewers suggested that since the president so confidently supports Serzh Sargsyan, it means that he has agreed with him on the position of prime minister. But at the polling station, Mr. Kocharyan chose not to lift the veil of secrecy over his future plans: “This is the biggest secret in Armenia.” President Kocharyan promised that with the current elections the country would “record serious progress in the development of democracy,” but could not confidently answer the question of whether it would be possible to determine the winner in the first round: “I don’t presume to predict, the voter will decide this, but I would like it to happen.” first."

Serge Sargsyan was asked about the second round twice in Armenian and three times in Russian, and he patiently answered in the sense that it is not the number of rounds that is important, but the trust of voters in the result. "Who will win?" - the Prime Minister was asked. “You have probably only recently arrived in Armenia, because I have already said many times who will win,” he replied. On the last evening of the election campaign, Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan explained on television with unprecedented frankness that he personally intended to vote for himself. After February 20, the prime minister promised to fight for the implementation of his election program. “There will be no significant changes in the government,” he said. - It started working relatively recently. Based on the results of the parliamentary elections, we (the Republican Party - Ed. ) could form it ourselves, but we attract non-party ministers and members of other parties.” Mr. Sargsyan kept silent about the main probable change in the composition of the cabinet (the change of prime minister in connection with the transition of the current one to the post of president), smiled charmingly and left - for some reason, accompanied by Vladimir Rushailo, who, apparently, considered this case, its mission as an international observer has been completed.

Levon Ter-Petrosyan appeared accompanied by his wife and three grandchildren, who clearly liked the attention of journalists to their illustrious grandfather. The grandfather was the least verbose and specifically asked the woman, the chairman of the commission, whether, according to the electoral legislation, it is possible to talk with journalists directly at the polling station and whether this does not violate the rights of other voters. The chairwoman, who smiled equally broadly at both Mr. Ter-Petrosyan and his two opponents, who showed no such interest in legal niceties, assured the first president that “three minutes is okay.” Mr. Ter-Petrosyan, however, kept it to 30 seconds - he said that he voted for freedom, and invited journalists to pay attention to what the current government was doing at the polling stations. “You can’t call this an election, it’s a shame,” said the candidate. On the way from the door to the black Lincoln, he was stopped several times by a crowd of journalists, but the candidate mostly took pictures, avoiding unnecessary comments.

But at half past two in the afternoon, Ter-Petrosyan’s headquarters held a briefing at which the violations recorded by that hour were listed. “What we expected and predicted is happening,” announced a staff member. “The criminal authorities, having no other methods, resorted to violence throughout the country, including physical violence.” The journalists were presented with candidate Ter-Petrosyan's proxies - the head of the "Alternative" movement Yerjanik Abgaryan and the former head of the national security service Gurgen Yeghiazaryan, who, with the connivance of the police, were beaten by several "bugs" at one of the polling stations in the Yerevan suburb of Abovyan.

“They simply told the police sergeant, 25-26 years old, to stand in the corner for now,” Mr. Yeghiazaryan said. - This guy is not guilty of anything, the entire police force is in such a humiliated state in a country ruled by bandits. There is information that at each polling station they throw in at least 500 ballots at the expense of those citizens who, through their own fault, are now absent from the country. Having already filled half of the ballot boxes, Serge is still not sure that he will be elected. It's a shame, it looks like Berlin in 1933. This is real fascism. No pasaran!

While the journalists were looking closely at the signs of violence on the victims’ faces, which, frankly speaking, did not look fresh, the headquarters employee read out an extensive list of recorded violations. This list, he said, will be made public and presented to international observation missions and relevant authorities. The list included: open voting instead of secret voting, wet stamps, which were to be used for the first time only with the opening of the polling station, campaigning at polling stations, delivery of ballot boxes and ballots from third places, bribery of voters, the classic “carousel” with the transportation of voters with several absentee ballots certificates for the brother and ballots with pre-checked boxes. “The second market of Yerevan has actually become the passport department of the police: peasants are brought there, issued absentee certificates and taken to the nearest polling stations,” explained an employee of Ter-Petrosyan’s headquarters.

“My journalist Samvel Avakyan was beaten at this market,” says Gegham Nazaryan, deputy editor-in-chief of the opposition newspaper Hayk. “When I came to the market directorate to pick up the voice recorder that had been taken from him, they told me: “Be grateful that they didn’t kill him.” A cameraman from the opposition company “A1+” was also injured, who was trying to film an aggressive gathering of people near the house of one of the entrepreneurs supporting Ter-Petrosyan. “This is not an election, this is an attempt to seize power,” they shrug at the opposition headquarters. “But we are confident that even in these conditions we will win.”

In the lobby of Serzh Sargsyan's headquarters, the symbol of the Republicans hangs from the ceiling - a wooden eagle with wings rigidly spread to the sides. Complete with a mass of shaven-headed athletes, it really does make you think of Berlin in 1933. One of the young people turns out to be Armen Ashotyan, a member of parliament and a member of the council of the Republican Party. “Our opponents misinterpret the electoral legislation of Armenia, one of the most liberal in the CIS,” he explains and clarifies with beautiful naivety: “No one is prohibited from mobilizing their supporters and bringing them to the polling station by bus. This doesn’t mean that they will definitely vote for him.”

Mr. Ashotyan is confident that the elections will be held in one round, but “the second round is not a disaster, but a procedure, and we will 100% be in the second round.” He talks about the day after the elections as follows: “Unfortunately, not all candidates show a truly civic position; some of them are ready to destabilize the situation. Although everyone who is dissatisfied has the opportunity to appeal the results in court and the prosecutor’s office.” Unable to resist, he elaborates: “Ter-Petrosyan’s nomination was not initially a bid for victory, but only a bid to overshadow these elections. If there are no violations of law and order on their part, everything will happen without clashes. But if they launch a frontal attack, law enforcement agencies will take retaliatory measures.”

Ter-Petrosyan’s supporters, who are confident in their bid for victory, on the contrary, expect excesses from the party in power. Although, apparently, there are already enough excesses. “Serge’s Republicans could have done everything neatly and beautifully, but they overdid it with the demonstration of force,” shrugs an old friend of mine who has experience observing the “hot” regional elections in the Russian North Caucasus in the 1990s. There is a lot of talk in Yerevan about the militias who took part in the Karabakh war going over to Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s side. This is a force that the opposition parties that lost last May's parliamentary elections could never have dreamed of.