Armenians Cast Ballots In Presidential Election (Published 1996)
- ️Mon Sep 23 1996
World News Briefs
- Sept. 23, 1996
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Armenians voted today in a tight presidential election among four candidates who all promise to improve harsh living conditions and resolve a border conflict.
Armenia's first presidential vote since breaking away from the Soviet Union drew 53 percent of the 2.2 million eligible voters, surpassing the required 50 percent to make the vote stick, the Central Election Committee reported.
Polls showed a dead heat between President Levon Ter-Petrosian and an opposition leader, Vazgen Manukian, head of the National-Democratic Union. The other candidates are Sergei Badalian, the Communist leader, and Ashot Manucharian, the President's former national security adviser. Results are not expected for several days.
The opposition blames Mr. Ter-Petrosian for failing to resolve a simmering conflict with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh. The two countries have fought since 1988 over the territory, which is located in Azerbaijan but is populated mainly by ethnic Armenians. A cease-fire has largely held for two years.
Mr. Ter-Petrosian's supporters credit him with the cease-fire, agricultural privatization and the start of an economic revival that boosted growth to 7 percent last year.
But the President has acknowledged that conditions for most of Armenia's 3.5 million citizens remain severe.
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