Armenians go to the polls today for the fifth presidential election since gaining independence. Despite facing a slate of six challengers, incumbent President Serzh Sarkisian, according to all polls, seems set to cruise to a second term.
Surveys show him winning about 70 percent of the vote.
Follow this blog and share pictures, videos or anything else you see on Twitter @RFERL or with the hashtags #armvote13and/or #iditord.
For a primer on the poll, watch our Google Hangout with RFE/RL's Armenian Service here:
Some say that the campaign season in Armenia has been "boring." Tell that to candidate Paruyr Hairikian, who was shot in Yerevan on January 31.
08:2418.2.2013
Tonino Picula, the head of the OSCE's election observation mission in Armenia, tells Reuters:
"After two days of briefings and other preparations, observers now [are on the ground] not only in Yerevan, but also in other towns, to check whether campaigning will finish with [election day] procedures."
Under the revised Electoral Code, only Armenians working in embassies and other government representations or those working for a few large companies, as well as members of their families, will be able to cast their ballots from outside the country.
The rest of the enormous amount of expatriated Armenian citizens will either have to return to Armenia to vote or sit out the poll entirely.
presidential elections in Armenia. Armenians living abroad won't be able to vote. #armvote13
Here are two videos that appear to show the stamp given to voters after they cast their ballots being easily wiped away. The stamps are given to voters in their passports. In the first one, the cloth is soaked with hydrogen peroxide.
