Armenians protest amid proposal for new general election

Police took up positions in the center of the Armenian capital on Wednesday as tens of thousands of people protested against the ruling elite and the acting prime minister suggested new parliamentary elections to defuse the political crisis.

"The fight is not over!" said 21-year-old Susana Adamyan, one of the demonstrators, who was clutching a placard calling on people to take a stand as policemen looked on.

Other protesters, many of them young people, held portraits of government officials whose faces had been crossed out with red paint.

When senior members of the ruling Republican Party appeared nearby, a Reuters reporter heard people shouting at them "Go home! You're a disgrace!"

Though protests have so far been peaceful, the sudden upheaval has threatened to destabilize Armenia, a Russian ally in a volatile region riven by its decades-long, low-level conflict with Azerbaijan.

Moscow, which has two military bases in Armenia, is closely watching events.

The crisis has seen tens of thousands of people take to the streets in anti-government protests in the last two weeks and looked to have peaked on Monday when Serzh Sarksyan, the object of protesters' fury, resigned as prime minister.

Demonstrators, led by opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan, had accused Sarksyan of manipulating the constitution to cling to power and crowds wildly celebrated after he quit.

SS