Ruling party wins Yerevan's Elder Council election

The ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), led by the country’s President, Serzh Sargsyan, won the 14 May Elders’ Council election. The party has nominated Taron Margaryan, the incumbent Mayor of Yerevan, for the Mayor’s post.

The Armenian Central Election Commission (CEC) has released the early voting results, under which the votes have been distributed as follows:

• Republican Party of Armenia – 71.25% or 240,036 votes;
• ‘Yelk’ bloc – 21% or 70,731 votes,
• ‘YerkirTsirani’ party – 7.75% or 26,109 votes.

The results indicate that the Republican Party will have majoritarian seats in the Elders’ Council. Under the Law on Local Self-Government in Yerevan, the city mayor shall be elected by the Elders’ Council. Therefore, Taron Margaryan will be re-elected to the mayor’s post.

According to early CEC data, the voter turnout was 40.99% or 345,226 people.

Three political forces, including two opposition ones, stood for election.

The Republican Party has nominated Taron Magaryan, the incumbent Mayor, for the Yerevan Mayor’s post, while the ‘Yelk’ bloc suggested Nikol Pashinyan, an MP. Zaruhi Postanjyan, a human rights activist and MP from the ‘Yerkir Tsirani’ party, has also contended for the Mayor’s post.

Three nominees carried out their campaigns from 21 April till 12 May, introducing their Yerevan development programs to the city residents. The incumbent mayor preferred a traditional form of campaigning, while the other two candidates applied some new methods: they rode bikes, climbed up garage roofs and drove around the city in convertibles.

Debates between the candidates were not held. The opposition politicians, Nikol Pashinyan and Zaruhi Postanjyan, invited the pro-governmental candidate, Taron Margaryan, to join the debates, but he refused to participate in them.