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Despite the continuing blockade from Turkey and Azerbaijan and exclusion from regional co-operation, the growth rate in Armenia was one of the highest among the former Soviet republics. Economic adaptation was headed in the right direction, if at a very parsimonious pace. On February 5, 2003, Armenia was made full member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), hoped to open new possibilities for Armenia's economy. However, the country was still tormented by a relatively high unemployment rate, and most financial activity still occurred in the black hole of the "shadow economy". Soviet habits die hard, and corruption continued to be one of the major torments of the country. The Karabakh issue was still unsolved, and there was no expectation of a break-through before the finalisation of the upcoming presidential elections of 2003 in both countries (Armenia held its presidential and parliamentary elections during the spring; Azerbaijan in the autumn).

In Armenia, Kocharian nominated himself for a second round, facing the opposition rallied around Karen Demirchian's son, Stepan Demirchian, a relatively inexperienced politician. The choice of opponent was undoubtedly more sentimental than based on Demirchian's political abilities. The majority of people participating in interviews and polls during the election campaign, answered that they would vote for Demirchian based on the fact that Stepan Demirchian was the son of Karen Demirchian and their belief that "the apple would not fall far from the tree". Though the outcome was perhaps predictable, the public still anxiously awaited the results of the election.

No candidate won an absolute majority in the first round, and a second round of elections took place on March 5, 2003. Kocharian won the second round. The opposition accused Kocharian of electoral rigging and claimed that Demirchian had won the election. Around 200 international observers from OSCE and PACE, who had monitored the election, presented a report to the European Parliament in which they stressed that, even if the election had been conducted in a calm and orderly fashion, there had been some serious violations of electoral law. The report called for a more just election process during the following parliamentary election.

Kocharian therefore remained in power, and his government also remained intact with no significant changes. Though it was unlikely that a change of power would have led to any major political changes, it would probably have altered domestic and foreign policy direction to some degree..