2003 Armenian presidential election

Presidential election in Armenia 2003 Armenian presidential election Armenia presidential no 1998 Armenian presidential election 1998 2008 Armenian presidential election 2008 19 February 2003 (first round)5 March 2003 (second round) 150x150px Robert Kocharyan Independent (politician) 1,044,591 67.45% 150x150px Stepan Demirchyan People's Party of Armenia 504,011 32.55% President Robert Kocharyan Robert Kocharyan Presidential elections were held 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. 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. http://www.rferl.org/Content/Article/1100488.html Armenia: Former President Mulls Political Comeback 2009-05-23 2002-08-08 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty 2009-02-17 https://web.archive.org/web/20090217134009/http://www.rferl.org/content/Article/1100488.html dead On the 7 August 2002 the Central Electoral Commission of Armenia announced that the presidential election would be held on the 19 February 2003, http://www.cacianalyst.org/?q=node/673 Armenian election dates set 2009-05-23 2002-08-08 Central Asia-Caucasus Institute with nominations required by 6 December 2002. http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav111902.shtml Former Armenian president seeking opposition support for comeback 2009-05-23 2002-11-19 Eurasianet.org Candidates had to supply 40,000 signatures of support in order to be able to stand in the election. https://www.rferl.org/a/1341879.html Caucasus Report: November 14, 2002 2009-05-23 2002-11-14 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty 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. Former President Levon Ter-Petrossian also contemplated running in the election but ultimately decided not to stand. 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. US watches presidential poll in oil-rich region The Independent 11 2003-02-19 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. Europe: Democracy, it's wonderful; Armenia's presidential vote The Economist 44 2003-02-22 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.http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/rights/articles/eav123002_pr.shtml Armenia's opposition: plurality and conflict 2009-05-23 2002-12-30 Eurasianet.org dead https://web.archive.org/web/20080904160610/http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/rights/articles/eav123002_pr.shtml September 4, 2008 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. Demirchyan ran in the election as an anti-corruption candidate. https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2784535.stm Armenia poll goes to run-off 2009-05-23 2003-02-20 BBC Online The other leading candidate was Artashes Geghamyan a former mayor of Yerevan, from the National Unity party. 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. Incumbent President set for ballot success The Independent 13 2003-02-20 Early results showed Kocharyan winning over half of the vote, 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. Election goes to second round run-off The Independent 13 2003-02-21 https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2787683.stm Armenian election race hots up 2009-05-23 2003-02-21 BBC Online This was first time any incumbent president in the Commonwealth of Independent States had failed to win in the first round of an election. https://www.rferl.org/a/1341812.html Caucasus Report: March 3, 2003 2009-05-23 2003-03-03 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty https://web.archive.org/web/20090518191519/http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1341812.html 18 May 2009 live See-through ballot boxes were used to try to minimise any fraud in the election. 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". 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". 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. Most of the opposition parties rallied behind Demirchyan in the election and a television debate took place between the two candidates.http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/pp031903_pr.shtml The implications of Armenia's post-election crisis 2009-05-23 2003-03-19 The New York Times dead https://web.archive.org/web/20080904160603/http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/pp031903_pr.shtml September 4, 2008 Kocharyan called on voters in the second round to give him "a convincing victory that no-one can question". https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2816155.stm Armenia poll race reaches climax 2009-05-23 2003-03-03 BBC Online The official results saw President Kocharyan winning just over two thirds of vote in the second round and thus he was re-elected. David Stern Anger at 'flawed' poll in Armenia Financial Times 4 2003-03-07 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. Demirchyan described the election as having been rigged and called on his supporters to rally against the results. https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2820893.stm Incumbent 'wins' Armenia vote 2009-05-23 2003-03-06 BBC Online Tens of thousands of Armenians protested in the days after the election against the results and called on President Kocharyan to step down. 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. https://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/10/world/world-briefing-asia-armenia-president-sworn-in-amid-protests.html?fta=y Armenia: President Sworn In Amid Protests 2009-05-23 2003-04-10 The New York Times http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/civilsociety/articles/eav042303.shtml Constitutional court stirs Armenian political controversy 2009-05-23 2003-04-23 Eurasianet.org Results Robert Kocharyan Independent 710674 1044591 Stepan Demirchyan People's Party 399757 504011 Artashes Geghamyan National Unity 250145 Aram Karapetyan Independent 41795 Vazgen Manukyan National Democratic Union 12904 Ruben Avagyan Unified Armenians Party 5788 Aram G. Sargsyan Democratic Party 3034 Garnik Margaryan Motherland and Dignity 1272 Aram Harutyunyan National Accord Party 854 37276 14469 2315410 2331507 IFES Analysis Hrant Mikayelian, researcher at the Caucasus Institute, noted that while falsifications during the election were significant and widespread, Kocharyan would have still won it in the second round, but at a far smaller margin.Из истории выборов в Армении. Были ли выборы честными? Часть 2. 2000-е https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/blogs/83781/posts/35878 https://web.archive.org/web/20181225130156/https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/blogs/83781/posts/35878 25 December 2018 ru 24 December 2018 See also 2008 Armenian presidential election protests 2011 Armenian protests 2013 Armenian protests References 30em External links hy 2003թ. նախագահական ընտրությունները Internews Armenia hy Ապրիլի 12. 2004թ A1plus Armenia Category:Presidential elections in Armenia presidential election Category:Human rights in Armenia Category:2003 protests Category:2004 protests Category:2000s in Armenian politics