FEB. 15 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenian president Serzh Sarksyan is expected to win another five years in power at a presidential election on Feb. 18, media reported. A poll by Gallup, published on Feb. 9, gave Mr Sarksyan 69% of the vote compared to his nearest challenger, Raffi Hovhannisyan, with 11% of the vote.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 124, published on Feb. 15 2013)
FEB. 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Officials in Armenia confirmed that there will be no delay to a presidential election scheduled for Feb. 18 despite the attempted assassination of Paruyr Hayrikyan, a candidate. Under the election rules, Mr Hayrikyan could have asked for a two week postponement to the voting.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 123, published on Feb. 8 2013)
FEB. 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Officials in Armenia confirmed that there will be no delay to a presidential election scheduled for Feb. 18 despite the attempted assassination of Paruyr Hayrikyan, a candidate. Under the election rules, Mr Hayrikyan could have asked for a two week postponement to the voting.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 123, published on Feb. 8 2013)
JAN. 31 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – A gunman shot and injured Paruyr Hayrikyan, a pro-Western outsider in Armenia’s Feb. 18 presidential, close to his home in Yerevan — potentially destabilising the country.
Mr Hayrikyan was relatively lucky. The bullet lodged itself in his shoulder, missing vital organs and arteries. Doctors have said that Mr Hayrikyan’s injuries are not life-threatening and Serzh Sarksyan, the Armenian president, has been photographed chatting to him by his hospital bedside.
The attempted murder, though, does indicate that somebody may want to destabilise the election and possibly Armenia itself.
Stability in Armenia is relatively fragile and elections act as flash-points. Rivalries bubble up, tension simmers over. In 2008, when Mr Sarksyan won power, protesters clashed with police in a central Yerevan square. Ten people died in the fighting.
Nobody has yet claimed responsibility for the attempted assassination of Mr Hayrikyan, although conspiracy theories are flying around. Analysts have also said that if Mr Hayrikyan withdrew from the election it could delay the vote by a fortnight.
All this could potentially destabilise Armenia, and the wider South Caucasus region.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 122, published on Feb. 1 2013)
JAN. 31 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – A gunman shot and injured Paruyr Hayrikyan, a pro-Western outsider in Armenia’s Feb. 18 presidential, close to his home in Yerevan — potentially destabilising the country.
Mr Hayrikyan was relatively lucky. The bullet lodged itself in his shoulder, missing vital organs and arteries. Doctors have said that Mr Hayrikyan’s injuries are not life-threatening and Serzh Sarksyan, the Armenian president, has been photographed chatting to him by his hospital bedside.
The attempted murder, though, does indicate that somebody may want to destabilise the election and possibly Armenia itself.
Stability in Armenia is relatively fragile and elections act as flash-points. Rivalries bubble up, tension simmers over. In 2008, when Mr Sarksyan won power, protesters clashed with police in a central Yerevan square. Ten people died in the fighting.
Nobody has yet claimed responsibility for the attempted assassination of Mr Hayrikyan, although conspiracy theories are flying around. Analysts have also said that if Mr Hayrikyan withdrew from the election it could delay the vote by a fortnight.
All this could potentially destabilise Armenia, and the wider South Caucasus region.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 122, published on Feb. 1 2013)
DEC. 26 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Tajik authorities flirted with blocking up to 131 websites ahead of a presidential election at the start of the year, media reported. An order to block the websites, mainly news and social media, was circulated on Dec. 20, only to be cancelled a week later. Tajikistan periodically blocks websites.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 118, published on Dec. 28 2012)
DEC. 14 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Gagik Tsarukyan, leader of Prosperous Armenia, the second largest party in the Armenian parliament, announced he would neither field a candidate in February’s presidential election nor publicly support any of the other candidates, media reported. His rivals said this move undermined the election.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 118, published on Dec. 28 2012)
OCT. 5 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili and his opposition coalition, Georgian Dream, pulled off a shock victory in a parliamentary election in Georgia on Oct. 1.
They defeated the victor of the 2003 Rose Revolution — Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and his political party United National Movement party (UNM).
Final results are not yet out, but estimates suggest that Georgian Dream will claim about 83 seats in the 150-seat parliament.
This was both a stunning and surprising victory. Analysts had predicted an easy win for UNM.
Now, though, Mr Ivanishvili has to show that he is not only a wily campaigner but can also govern. And this is where it will get complicated. Other than vague notions of improving ties with Russia while still moving towards the West, Mr Ivanishvili has been light on policy ideas.
A new constitution, due to be adopted next year further complicates matters. Until then, the president is still the most powerful figure in the country and even appoints the prime minister. After the new constitution comes into play, power shifts to the prime minister.
And there is also the small matter of another election, this time a presidential election, scheduled for Oct. 2013. It’s likely to be an unsettling 12 months in Georgia.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 107, published on Oct. 5 2012)
SEP. 28 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Street protests, stirred by revelations last week of abuse in Georgia’s prisons, continued to dominate Tbilisi ahead of parliamentary elections on Oct. 1. Media outlets have also reported that the video of the abuses has pushed people towards voting for the opposition party, Georgian Dream.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 106, published on Sep. 28 2012)
SEP. 21 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s parliamentary election on Oct. 1 was always going to be a close run affair. The United Movement Party, the party of President Mikheil Saakashvili, has found its most dogged and well-funded opponent yet in the Georgian Dream, the party of the country’s richest man, Bidzina Ivanishvili.
Now, though, after the broadcasting of a leaked video from inside a prison showing guards raping inmates with truncheons, it’s become even more fraught.
Hundreds of people poured out onto the streets of Tbilisi to protest against the videos shortly after they were aired on Sept. 18. A junior cabinet minister resigned immediately and then, a couple of days later the interior minister, Bacho Akhalaia, also quit.
The damage may have already been done, though. It’s not clear yet what impact the video will have on voters’ intention but it does feed into the feeling, shared by many Georgians, that not far below the glossy surface lies a more unsightly side of the current government.
The video, broadcast by two pro-opposition TV channels and apparently timed to have maximum impact on the election, may have had its desired effect.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 105, published on Sep. 21 2012)
