Now that the date for next year’s presidential election in Armenia has been set for 19 February 2008, the race to succeed the incumbent president who is not eligible to see a third consecutive term in office is on. The election looks set to be quite unlike any other with Armenia’s first president, Levon Ter Petrosian, having already declared his intention to run against the most probable front-runner, the prime minister.

Armenian Public Radio, for example, reports the findings one poll that suggests Serzh Sarkisian maintains a commanding lead over potential rivals. However, while most Armenians believe he will be the next president of the Republic of Armenia, far less say they would actually vote for him. This makes the imminent pre-election campaign all the more interesting.

67% of the Armenian population is confident that the leader of the Republican Party of Armenia, Prime Minister Serge Sargsyan will win the forthcoming presidential elections. This is evidenced by the public opinion poll conducted by the British ComRes organization.

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If the poll was conducted this Sunday, 55% of the enfranchised would participate in it. 38% of the voters would cast their ballot in favor of Serge Sargsyan, 13% - for Raffi Hovhannisyan, 12%- for Arthur Baghdasaryan, 8% - Artashes Geghamyan, 6% - Levon Ter-Petrosyan, 5% - Vazgen Manukyan, 4% - Gagik Tsarukyan and 4% - Vahan Hovhannisyan. Aram Karapetyan would receive 1%.

Most of the respondents - 63% - do not believe that the opposition will get united. Only 19% hope for this.

According to the survey results, Serge Sargsyan is the best presidential candidate to deal with the problems Armenia faces. 28% consider he can best solve the issue of unemployment. 20% think Arthur Baghdasaryan can solve it. 19% trust Raffi Hovhannisyan, 6% - Levon Ter-Petrosyan and 3% - Armen Rustamyan.

The full post is available on the Armenia Election Monitor 2008 Blog.