Yerevan: Armenia's Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian has won the country's presidential election, the central election commission today said, but his opponents cried foul and vowed to stage a mass protest.

A final preliminary count of the vote gave Sarkisian 52.9 per cent, elections commission spokesman Garegin Azarian said. He was trailed by former president Levon Ter-Petrosian with 21.5 per cent and former parliament speaker Artur Baghdasarian with 16.6 per cent, Azarian said.

The poll victory clears the way for 53-year-old Sarkisian to take over from his close ally, outgoing President Robert Kocharian. Kocharian wasted no time in congratulating his protoge.

"I congratulate you from my heart on your convincing victory in the presidential election," Kocharian said in a statement. He said the vote had been "free and fair" and gave Sarkisian a mandate to continue "rapid development and democratisation."

Europe's main election monitoring body, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), was scheduled to issue its own judgment on the vote later today.

Around 600 foreign observers monitored the election for the OSCE. Even before polls had closed, Ter-Petrosian's campaign team had denounced the vote as a fraud and called for a mass rally in the capital Yerevan today.

Source : PTI