Armenian FM says UK Ambassador remarks were incorrect

YEREVAN, January 24. / ARKA /. Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian responded to British Ambassador’s remarks on  the upcoming presidential elections in Armenia calling them ‘incorrect.’

UK ambassador to Armenia, Catherine Jane Leach, wrote in hers blog that after holding elections in  the last decade  marred by fraud, it is a great challenge for the Armenian authorities to hold this time  fair elections and  restore the confidence of the nation and Armenia’s partners.

"The ambassador commented on assessments made in the press and by the public. Some of them, I think, were absolutely appropriate. But I do not think it is correct for an ambassador to provide assessments of the upcoming polls,’ Nalbandian said at a news conference on Thursday.

The February 18 election will be contested by eight candidates - the incumbent president Serzh Sargsyan, former prime minister Hrant Bagratian, ex-foreign minister Raffi Hovannisian, a Soviet time dissident Paruyr Hayrikyan, former foreign minister of Karabakh Arman Melikyan, a political analyst Andrias Ghukasyan, a businessman Vartan Sedrakian and Aram Harutyunyan, leader of a small National Unity party. -0-