An increasing corruption, unsolved political murders, political motivated trials, pressure and restrictions on the press constituted additional factors for the undermining of the popularity of the government. 152 The first blows came during the rigged parliamentary elections and the rigged referendum concerning the adoption of the constitution which took place on July 5, 1995. But even more important was the fraudulent president election on September 1996. 153 According to the official figures, Ter- Petrosian had received 51.7 percent of the votes, while his most important competitor, Vazgen Manoukian, had received 41.29 percent. Hence there was no need for a second round between these two candidates. 154 OSCE (Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe) confirmed that the voting and the election process "caused concern over the integrity of the election process in general." 156 Among these was the fact that maybe the biggest competitive party, Dashnaktsoutyoun, had been banned and suspended in December 1994, before the start of the election campaign. 160
The majority of the Armenians were convinced that Ter-Petrosian, in the voting on September 22, had failed to receive more votes, even less likely a majority. Their suspicion was strengthen when four members from the Central Electorate Centre (CEC), on September 25, proclaimed that Manoukian had actually received 60 percent of the votes. 159
The political crisis reached its climax during a mass demonstration there somewhere between 150,000 and 200,000 Armenians gathered in the Liberty Square on September 25. Vazgen Manoukian left the demonstration in order to participate in a meeting with CEC to demand that they would allow an independent part would recount the votes. He did not return in two hours, when the demonstrators broke their way into the parliament building and beat its chairman, Babken Ararktsian, and the deputy chairman, Ara Sahakian. Then intervened Vazgen Sarkisian with an armed detachment and ordered the soldiers and the policemen to shoot the demonstrators in the leg. Sarkisian actually participated in the shooting. The demonstrators were dispersed and the demand for a recount was, not entirely unexpected, dismissed. 162
The election destroyed Ter-Petrosian's image internationally, but West did not make anything ou of the problem. A weak president has many ranges of uses and the western pressure on Ter-Petrosian increased even more during 1997.
In an attempt to repair some of the mistakes, Ter-Petrosian appointed Armen Sarkisian (the Armenian ambassador in UK at the time) to prime minister. Untouched by corruption and highly respected by West, Sarkisian seemed to be a good choice. However, he lacked a significant base of power in Armenia. Another more important alteration in the government was the appointment of Vano Sirdaghian as the mayor of Yerevan, whereby he left the government. The interior and the security ministries were merged into one portfolio and placed under the control of Serzh Sarkisian. Vazgen Sarkisian was appointed to defence minister. This arrangement would turn out to be an extremely critical choice since the two latter ministers would within a period of one year play a decisive role in the shaping of the president's fate.
The new government began its work on November 29, but health issues and , maybe most important of them all, the awareness of that it would be impossible to convince HHSh to accept the necessary reforms led to the resignation request of Armen Sarkisian on March 6, 1997. Ter-Petrosian refused to accept his resignation but was finally compelled to find a new prime minister. Finally, on Marc 20, 1997, Ter-Petrosian appointed Robert Kocharian, president of the self announced republic of Nagorno Karabakh, as his new prime minister. Even Kocharian was untouched by the existing corruption in Yerevan.
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