Elections...

Well today (May 12) was the big parliamentary elections. The outcome is still not final, but the fairness of the voting is of course as big an issue as the victor(s). The elections seem cleaner than in the past in some respects so far... but we'll know more for sure tomorrow. There was definitely some vote buying going on, and at sometimes $50 a vote, it's not a small sum, but I haven't read reports of ballot box stuffing, multiple voting, dead voters, etc up to now. The brief initial results I saw had the governing parties doing well - but I only caught results for various villages, no overall results. Election coverage is a bit primitive still, with Armenia TV doing live coverage. H1, the state station is instead broadcasting the Eurovision contest live. The Armenian contestant hasn't sung yet, and I dunno if I'll stay up to wait for him...