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Yerevan: Thousands of opposition supporters gathered in Armenia's capital for a second day on Thursday and said they would not leave until the victory of Prime Minister Serzh Sarksyan in a presidential election is overturned.
Official results gave Sarksyan, a close ally of outgoing President Robert Kocharyan, 52.86 per cent in a vote on Tuesday that Western observers said had been broadly fair. Sarksyan has pledged to continue his predecessor's policies.
His chief opponent, former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan, alleged the vote was distorted by ballot-stuffing and intimidation of opposition activities. Official results gave him 21.5 per cent of the vote.
Perched high in the Caucasus mountains, Armenia is in a region emerging as a key transit route for energy supplies from the Caspian Sea to world markets, though it has no pipelines of its own.
Reporters at the protest on Freedom Square, outside Yerevan's opera house, said between 15,000 and 20,000 demonstrators had gathered yesterday - roughly the same number that protested the day before.
"Our protest will be permanent," said Nikol Pashinyan, a senior aide to Ter-Petrosyan. "We demand that the Central Election Commission declare the election invalid and call a new election," he said.
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