Armenian opposition to protest over vote result

By Hasmik Mkrtchyan and Margarita Antidze

YEREVAN (Reuters) - Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sarksyan won a presidential election on Tuesday, an exit poll showed, but his opponents said the vote had been rigged and called their supporters onto the streets to protest.

Sarksyan, who has said he will continue the policies of outgoing President Robert Kocharyan, won 57 percent of the vote, the exit poll showed.

Opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan, first president of Armenia after it won independence from the Soviet Union, scored 17 percent, according to the poll by Britain's Populus pollster carried out for Armenian public television.

But Ter-Petrosyan's aides said he was the real winner and announced a protest rally in the capital Yerevan on Wednesday.

"The first president of Armenia won in the first round. We would like to congratulate citizens with that victory," said Ter-Petrosyan's spokesman Arman Musinyan.

"There were very serious violations during voting, including ballot-stuffing, kidnapping and the beating of our representatives at the polling stations," he said.

Land-locked Armenia relies heavily on an alliance with Moscow and remains poor despite swift recent economic growth.

High in the Caucasus mountains, it is squeezed between Turkey and Azerbaijan in a region that is emerging as an important transit route for oil exports from the Caspian Sea to world markets.