Armenians Peacefully Cast Votes

ARARAT, Armenia —  Lucine Karapetyan beamed with delight Monday after stepping out of the polling booth where she had cast a vote for Armenia’s next president, as election officials presented her with three pink carnations, a boxed coffee service and a local guidebook.

Karapetyan was celebrating her 18th birthday--and first vote--as widespread fears that both the election and Armenia’s international reputation would be marred by serious vote-rigging were dispelled during a quietly enthusiastic day at the polls.

“People really believe that their votes count this time,” political analyst Boris Navasardyan said. “If there aren’t any problems, this will be the first truly democratic election here.”

A presidential vote in 1996 that returned incumbent Levon A. Ter-Petrosyan to power for a second term was followed by angry demonstrations and claims that his supporters had stolen the election from his leading contender, Vazgen Manukyan. Ter-Petrosyan brought out tanks to quell the protests.

International observers then confirmed several cases of suspect practices--districts that registered voter turnouts of well over 100%, police standing over ballot boxes, suspicious voting in the army and unexpected power cuts around the capital, Yerevan, that enabled other boxes to be spirited away.

After 1996, Ter-Petrosyan’s popularity plummeted. Last month, he resigned amid more uproar. This time, the scandal was caused by his suggestion that ethnic Armenians in neighboring Nagorno-Karabakh, who want formal independence from their Soviet-era overlords--Turkic-speaking Azerbaijan--should make big concessions to Azerbaijan in peace talks.

Diplomats, analysts and election experts warned that more electoral fraud was possible this time and said the result of Monday’s election will decide the direction this former Soviet republic will take--toward real democracy or irresponsible authoritarianism.

Fears that the latter option would win the day were fanned last week when one political figure was attacked at a rally here in Ararat, a village about 30 miles south of the capital, and his supporters were badly beaten.

Acting President Robert Kocharyan--a leading candidate--told foreign reporters last week that he had moved quickly to investigate the violence at the Ararat rally and was doing his best to stop any more malpractice.

Another front-running candidate, Karen S. Demirchyan--Armenia’s enormously popular former Communist Party boss--has since condemned incidents in which kerosene and money were reportedly handed out in exchange for voter information.

However, observers from an international team of about 180 people--twice as many as in 1996--said Monday that they had seen no serious violations at polling stations.

Throughout the day, turnout was so high that lines formed outside polling stations and many people waited almost half an hour to cast their ballots. By midafternoon, more than half the country’s 2.5-million-member electorate had voted.

A second round of balloting featuring the two top vote-getters will take place March 30 if, as seems likely, none of the 12 candidates win more than 50% on Monday. Results of Monday’s voting--in which Kocharyan and Demirchyan are likely to have come out ahead--will probably be released late today or Wednesday.