While most of the world was watching the elections-cum-coronation in Russia earlier this month, in a far corner of the former Soviet empire, the fallout of another fraudulent poll left at least eight dead and over a hundred injured. Sadly, the violence in the wake of Armenia's presidential election, though a first in the streets of the capital Yerevan, follows a dangerous pattern now all too familiar in the South Caucasus.
The oft-repeated scenario goes like this: First, irregularities and allegations of fraud mar elections. Then, the opposition organizes mass demonstrations in protest. Finally, the police are sent out and use excessive force to beat protesters off the streets. This has become such a routine in Armenia and Azerbaijan that the parties facing the polls now seem to spend as much time preparing for the post-election showdown as campaigning for votes. The same also appears to be underway in the run-up to May's parliamentary elections in Georgia, where a government crackdown on peaceful protests in November set the scene for January's presidential poll.
Few in the region believe they can change the government peacefully through the ballot box. Too many elections have been spoiled by bad or very bad counting, intimidation of opposition activists, ballot-stuffing, multiple voting, biased election commissions, use of state resources to support the government-backed candidate, and skewed media coverage during the campaign. Rather then fully investigate claims of election-related violations, the country's elections bodies and courts dismiss them.
This was not the post-Soviet reality many had hoped for. After the South Caucasus republics won their independence following the Soviet Union's collapse, everyone spoke of their transition to democracy. Several wars and many sham elections later, the transition seems stalled at best.
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