By Bridget Johnson, your guide to Journalism

Serge Sarkisian has won enough votes in Tuesday’s presidential contest to avoid a runoff with former president Levon Ter-Petrosian — 52 percent for Sarkisian and 22 percent of Ter-Petrosian with 97.5 percent of the votes counted (and about 69 percent voter turnout), at this writing. But even though the 53-year-old prime minister handily took the votes to replace outgoing President Robert Kocharian, the election drama is far from over: Ter-Petrosian’s supporters are set to protest in the streets today, crying foul over the final tally. Allegations include voter intimidation, ballot stuffing, voting more than once, and, generally, in the words of the opposition candidate himself, “very dirty things.”

The vote also comes at an interesting time in the wake of Kosovo declaring independence. Armenia is in a snit — well, still officially at war, technically — with Azerbaijan over the disputed south Caucasus region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The Azeris fear similar breakaway efforts in the mountainous region. Sarkisian, incidentally, was born in the Karabakh, while Ter-Petrosian lost the presidential office in 1998 because he offered concessions to the Azeris to end the battle. The war, which has been in cease-fire mode since 1994, has taken an estimated 30,000 lives.

Both of Tuesday’s contenders have political histories going back to Armenia’s Soviet days: Ter-Petrosian was the first president after liberation, and during the Soviet era Sarkisian was head of the Propaganda and Agitation Division of the Stepanakert City Communist Party Committee (put that on a resume — “Yes, I can type 50 WPM, and I’m experienced at agitation…”).