Once again, Armenia has been cut off from the information superhighway because of the damn ArmenTel monopoly. The connection went out on Friday at about mid-day and was restored early evening, but went down again in the early hours of Saturday morning. Although those few companies and international organizations with satellite connections were fortunate enough […]
The BBC reports that even if the pro-Russian Yanukovych looks set to take more votes than his Orange Revolution counterparts, democratization appears to continue. This is marvellous news, and if that is the case, I’m glad, although a little jealous because of the situation here. Still, we can but hope that something unprecedented will happen during the parliamentary elections scheduled for Armenia next year.
The rival leaders of Ukraine’s Orange Revolution are considering reuniting to try to keep out a pro-Russian party that seems to have polled most votes.
Early results in the parliamentary poll suggest President Viktor Yushchenko’s party was beaten into third place.
[…]
Former PM Viktor Yanukovych appears to have taken the largest vote share.
With 20% of the vote counted, election commission officials put Mr Yanukovych’s party in the lead with 25.6%, closely followed by Ms Tymoshenko’s party with 23.6%.
The president’s party trails in third place with 17.2%.
[…]
Observers from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe have described the election as “free and fair”.
A victory for Mr Yanukovych - who was written off a year ago - would be a dramatic comeback.
He was declared the winner of the presidential election in November 2004, but allegations of widespread vote-rigging sent hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians out on to the streets to demand change.
In what became known as the Orange Revolution, the election result was overturned and Mr Yushchenko went on to win a re-run.
The full story can be read here, but suffice it to say that if it can happen in Ukraine, it can happen in Armenia. The only unanswered question is whether a “velvet revolution” is necessary first. It also implies that elections in Armenia’s northern neighbor, Georgia, will probably continue to be democratic in the future. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.
