Daily Star. Armenians vote in hotly-contested Yerevan mayor race

Armenians in the capital Yerevan voted Sunday in a mayoral election that the country's weakened opposition hopes would see them claw back momentum from President Serzh Sarkisian reelection.

Several opposition parties are taking part in the vote for mayor of Yerevan after they failed to put up candidates for the presidential poll in February.

"I voted for... the political party that has a clear idea of the role of the mayor's office in the political life and system of government in Armenia," Sarkisian told journalists after casting his ballot.

Sarkisian, a shrewd former military officer in power since 2008, won the presidential poll in the small country nestled in the Caucasus mountains between Turkey and Iran with more than 58 percent of the vote.

The February election was seen as an improvement on past polls, even though it lacked genuine competition, after the vote that brought Sarkisian to power in 2008 ended in clashes between police and supporters of the defeated opposition candidate in which 10 people died.

Opposition leaders have attempted to turn Sunday's vote in Yerevan -- where over a third of Armenia's roughly 3.2 million inhabitants live -- into a referendum on Sarkisian's February victory, after a spate of street protests fizzled out.

Analysts have said that Sarkisian's Republican Party remained the favourite to retain control over Yerevan and cautioned that the opposition was trying to inflate the importance of Sunday's polls.

Preliminary results are expected Monday.