Wounded Armenian Presidential Candidate Won’t Seek to Delay Vote

An Armenian presidential candidate who was wounded in a shooting last week won’t seek to postpone elections scheduled for Feb. 18.

Paruyr Hayrikyan, who had bullet fragments removed from his right shoulder after the incident on Jan. 31, has decided to continue campaigning, his lawyer, Levon Baghdasaryan, told a new conference today. He has the right to request a two-week delay under Armenia’s constitution.

Hayrikyan, 63, is one of eight candidates running for the presidency in the sixth elections since the former Soviet republic’s independence in 1991. He had 4 percent backing, according to a Gallup International Association poll of 1,020 people last week that had a 3.1 percentage points margin of error. President Serzh Sargsyan is poised to win the vote with 66 percent support.

Armenia’s National Security Service is investigating the attempt on Hayrikyan’s life.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sara Khojoyan in Moscow at skhojoyan@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net