Presidential elections were held in Armenia on 19 February 2008. Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan was elected in the first round according to official results, but this was disputed by former President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, who was officially placed second.
The candidacy of Sargsyan was backed by incumbent President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan, who was ineligible to stand for a third consecutive term. Other candidates included Vahan Hovhannisyan, the Vice President of the National Assembly, representing the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. The largest opposition party, Orinats Yerkir (Rule of Law), nominated former parliamentary speaker Artur Baghdasarian as its candidate.
Candidates
By the registration deadline of 6 December 2007, nine candidates had registered: Artur Baghdasarian from Rule of Law Artashes Geghamyan from the National Unity Aram Harutyunyan from the National Conciliation Party Vahan Hovhannisyan from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Tigran Karapetyan from the People's Party Vazgen Manukyan from the National Democratic Union Arman Melikyan Serzh Sargsyan from the Republican Party of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan
Raffi Hovannisian from Heritage and Aram Karapetyan from New Times also tried to register, but were refused the 10 year certificates of residency in Armenia by the Armenian Police Department. Prosperous Armenia's Gagik Tsarukian, a business oligarch, whose party had the second largest faction in parliament endorsed Serzh Sargsyan.
Ter-Petrosyan officially announced his candidacy in a speech in Yerevan on 26 October 2007. He accused Kocharyan of running "an institutionalized mafia-style regime" that was responsible for massive corruption involving the theft of "at least three to four billion dollars" over the previous five years. He was also critical of the government's claims of strong economic growth and argued that Kocharyan and Sargsyan had come to accept a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that was effectively the same solution that he had proposed ten years earlier, although they had strongly opposed that proposal at the time.
Campaign and election
The electoral campaign began on 21 January 2008. At the opening of campaigning, Ter-Petrosyan fiercely denounced Sargsyan and Kocharyan, accusing them of "thieving and anti-popular" rule, and said that he was certain of victory, while acknowledging "disappointments" and "harsh criticisms" regarding his earlier presidency during the 1990s. For his part, Baghdasarian released a 32-page manifesto for his campaign, vowing to "eliminate corruption and embezzlement" and to provide "equality before law" and "a drastic rise in the living standards of the people". Hovhannisyan, meanwhile, was a candidate despite the participation of his party, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, in the governing coalition; his campaign promises included the break-up of monopolies, the promotion of economic development, and anti-corruption measures. Geghamyan, the National Unity Party's candidate, devoted the opening of his campaign to denouncing Ter-Petrosyan and accused others in the opposition of smearing him. Some members of the opposition suggested that Geghamyan was working for the government in an effort to undermine Ter-Petrosyan.
Ter-Petrosyan criticized Baghdasarian for running his own campaign instead of rallying behind Ter-Petrosyan's candidacy, calling him a "traitor" and saying that he was effectively supporting Sargsyan. After Baghdasarian rebuffed Ter-Petrosyan's ultimatum, a pro-Ter-Petrosyan newspaper, Haykakan Zhamanak, insinuated that Baghdasarian was a "sexual deviant."
Aside from his own Republican Party, Sargysan was endorsed by Prosperous Armenia.
It was considered very likely that Sargsyan would finish in the first place in the first round, with either former president Ter-Petrosyan or Baghdasarian, who ran on a pro-EU and pro-NATO platform, in second place. First results and reports from OSCE election observers were expected on 20 February 2008, and the final result was to be announced within seven days.