Tert.am
Armenia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) has approved the final list of presidential candidates, registering eight of the 15 nominees who had initially filed bids for the upcoming election.
The seven candidates, who have fallen short of the target, did not pay their election deposits. The CEC has thus registered incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan, the leader of the Freedom Party, Hrant Bagratyan, a former foreign minister of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, Arman Melikyan, the leader of the Heritage party, Raffi Hovhannisyan, epic expert, Vardan Sedrakyan, political analyst, Andrias Ghukasyan, and the leader of the National Consent party, Aram Harutyunyan.
The deadline for submitting withdrawals is 6:00 pm, February 8. The official campaign will start on January 21 and run through February 16.
The nominees who had not paid their election deposits as of January 6 were given an additional time of 48 hours to make the payment and submit the receipt to the Commission. Only one of them, Robert Aharonyan, had withdrawn his bid by the specified deadline.
The presidential polls are slated for February 18.
January 14, 2013 at 16:39