(22 Feb 2013)
1. Wide of protesters cheering to greet opposition leader Raffi Hovanessian, who lost election
2. Hovanessian (right) raising hands with a supporter to greet crowd
3. Wide of crowd at rally
4. Close-up of Hovanessian looking out onto gathered crowd
5. Mid of crowd
6. SOUNDBITE: (English) Raffi Hovanessian, opposition leader:
"The people of Armenia on February 18th decided to bring back the rule of law, the constitution and their rights to Armenia. We have lost so much in history in the genocide, in the great national dispossession. But, today, the Armenian people have understood that the time has come, that we take control of our own destiny, of our own rights, and today the people have come together - of all political parties, of all persuasions - to say 'this is our country'."
7. Wide of speaker at rally
8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Raffi Hovanessian, presidential candidate:
"(Armenia is) a nation with a future, a future of liberty, democracy, security and national unity. I'm very proud, I'm very proud and empowered by the average citizen who said 'I am taking back my country, this is mine'."
9. Various of rally
STORYLINE:
Around 8,000 people gathered in Armenia's capital Yerevan on Friday to protest against the re-election of the incumbent president
and voice their support for opposition leader Raffi Hovanessian, one of the losing candidates.
President Serge Sarkisian easily won a second five-year term in Monday's vote, getting nearly 59 percent of the vote.
US born Hovanessian, the closest of his six rivals, polled 37 percent.
Hovanessian, Armenia's first foreign minister after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, has called the election unfair and rigged, claiming cases of ballot-box stuffing and voters being coerced to back Sarkisian.
He told his supporters that he would continue to challenge the vote results and said he would travel to several Armenian cities to gain further support.
The landlocked country's economy is hobbled by the longstanding closure of its borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey.
Both neighbours reject the occupation by Armenian troops and ethnic Armenian local forces of Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region.
That conflict shows no signs of resolution despite years of international mediation attempts.
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