Armenia: nine persons have applied to CEC as racers for presidency

Today, the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Armenia has received applications from three other contenders for the presidency, namely: from a nonpartisan citizen of Armenia Pavlik Sarkisyan; Narine Mkrtchyan, the chair of the National Press Club; and Arman Melikyan, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Thus, the total number of applicants is nine.

Arman Melikyan, the Ex-Foreign Minister of Nagorno-Karabakh, is running for the post for the second time; in 2008, he ran for the presidency and won 0.27% of the votes. Pavlik Sarkisyan and Narine Mkrtchyan are taking part in the election as candidates for the first time.

Narine Mkrtchyan, the Chair of the National Press Club and the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Ambion" (Tribune) is the first woman-candidate for the president of Armenia.

Apart from Sarkisyan, Melikyan and Mkrtchyan, to date, the nomination papers have been submitted to the CEC by the incumbent President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, the leader of the Association "National Self-Determination" Paruir Airikyan, an epos expert Vardan Sedrakian, a physicist Mger Airapetyan, a political scientist Andreas Gukasyan and the Chairman of "National Accord "Party Aram Arutyunyan.