Reuters. Armenian president promises security after election victory

Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan promised on Tuesday to make the country secure and stable after cruising to victory in an election which international vote monitors said lacked real competition.

But Sarksyan faces a challenge in his second five-year term to prevent tensions increasing with Azerbaijan over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh that could lead to a new war in the South Caucasus, where pipelines carry Caspian oil and gas to Europe.

Preliminary results showed Sarksyan won 58.6 percent of votes cast in Monday's election, enough to avoid a run-off. But his victory provoked allegations of fraud from his opponents.

"Armenia chose the path towards a safe Armenia and I am happy and proud of the fact that every resident of Armenia will be on that path," Sarksyan, 58, told celebrating supporters.

Sarksyan's closest rival, U.S.-born former Foreign Minister Raffi Hovannisian, trailed on nearly 37 percent.

International observers said the vote was an improvement on recent elections in the former Soviet republic, including the 2008 presidential ballot in which 10 people were killed.

"However, the limited field of candidates meant that the election was not genuinely competitive," representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said in a statement.

"The candidates who did run were able to campaign in a free atmosphere and to present their views to voters, but the campaign overall failed to engage the public's interest."

Several of Sarksyan's potential rivals, most notably former President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, decided not to run because they feared the election would be skewed in the president's favor.

A minor candidate was shot and wounded during campaigning, and police received 70 complaints of voting violations. The result was in line with opinion polls, however.

Hovannisian's Heritage Party alleged some ballots cast for opposition candidates had been thrown out. Up to 500 supporters gathered in Yerevan late on Tuesday, calling for Sarksyan to quit and promising more protests, but there was no violence.