“If the Armenian presidential election does not proceed in free and fair condition enabling the elected candidate have a full political mandate, he will not have enough legitimacy to fight corruption and resolve the conflict of Karabakh through peaceful negotiations,” writes the report of the International Crisis Group in the section about Armenia published recently. “If this election is again recognized as violated, it will even deepen the economic problems and will become an obstacle for negotiations,” said the ICS Caucasus project director Lawrence Sheets. According to the authors of the report, the elections due to on February 2013 will give an opportunity to Serzh Sargsyan to act like honored politician. “For this purpose the upcoming elections must be the most reliable and fair elections in the history of Armenia,” writes the ICS and mentions that in twenty years after the collapse of the Soviet Union giving the power through democratic and peaceful means is not a common practice in South Caucasus.
