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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
Armenia chooses new parliament amid worries |
2007-05-13 |
Armenia voted for a new parliament Saturday in elections dominated by concerns about economic issues in the poor and landlocked ex-Soviet republic and by opposition fears that officials will falsify the results. All 131 seats in the National Assembly are to be filled - 90 to be chosen according to proportions that parties get nationwide and 41 in single-mandate contests. Preliminary results were expected Monday. The last parliamentary election, in 2003, was assessed by Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe observers as falling short of international democratic standards. But a preliminary report from the OSCE's elections-monitoring office on this year's campaign did not point to significant problems. National media reports on the campaign have been "generally devoid of negative reporting," the report said. The OSCE frequently criticizes elections in post-Soviet countries for media reports that either ignore opposition forces or portray them unfairly |
Posted by:Fred |
#7 Is there no venue you haven't visited? Zen, I'm partial to the BBQ caucus in Marin County. |
Posted by: RD 2007-05-13 18:32 |
#6 There's plenty of places I haven't been, Zenster, I just happened to have worked in the Caucasus a lot in the 1990s. I'm really way out of touch with things back there, thus have not the slightest idea where things might be headed. Armenia always seemed a cut or two above the other former Soviet republics I worked in, partly due to heavy foreign (i.e. diaspora) involvement and influence. Russia itself certainly seems to be a lost cause, but as for Armenia, I can't say. Georgia seemed to have at least found a few decent folks with the young president's new government, Azerbaijan is a hopeless quasi-dynasty. Not a rosy picture, but then again real change can take a long time. |
Posted by: Verlaine 2007-05-13 15:27 |
#5 THAN a horrid descent ... |
Posted by: Zenster 2007-05-13 02:48 |
#4 Damn your eyes, Verlaine. Is there no venue you haven't visited? What's an ordinary Rantburger to do? is it a settled fact that Armenia, and not Ethiopia, was the first Christian state? Let's have the Jews settle that question, eh? Again, I really appreciate your well-informed posts. What do you see as Armenia's future? It is so difficult to imagine anything more that a horrid descent back into Soviet style gangsterism? I want this to be so untrue yet see very little alternative. |
Posted by: Zenster 2007-05-13 02:46 |
#3 Actually, Zenster, I think private support from the very successful Armenian diaspora HAS been significant - and at least in the years 1992 to 1997, when I worked the issue, US support was substantial. Also, don't forget (unless it's changed) the strategic alliance between the two orthodox cultures, Russia and Armenia, which sort of provided Armenia a backstop during those early rough years of independence. I managed to be in Armenia in summer or fall, and thus avoided the winter problems, though I did find myself in Nagorno-Karabakh in January once, and had some amusingly primitive lodgings there. Trivia question: is it a settled fact that Armenia, and not Ethiopia, was the first Christian state? I thought that was in dispute. |
Posted by: Verlaine 2007-05-13 02:32 |
#2 Ahh, how I do love em. I stared over Lake Ohrid that night and watched them in front of me :) |
Posted by: newc 2007-05-13 01:46 |