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YEREVAN (RFE/RL)--Campaigning
has officially begun for the first mayoral elections in Yerevan
in nearly two decades. Residents of the Armenian capital will go
to the polls on May 31 to elect a municipal assembly empowered
to choose the city's next mayors.
Yerevan's municipal assembly has been appointed by the president
of the republic ever since Armenia adopted its post-Soviet
constitution in 1995. One of the amendments to that constitution
enacted in late 2005 allowed indirect elections of Yerevan
mayors by universal suffrage. President Serzh Sarkisian and his
predecessor Robert Kocharian controversially delayed the conduct
of those polls.
Under a relevant law adopted by parliament late last year, all
65 seats in the municipal Council of Elders will be up for grabs
under the system of proportional representation. The law
stipulates that parties and blocs need to win at least 7 and 9
percent of the vote respectively in order to be represented in
the assembly. The party or bloc getting more than 40 percent of
the vote would be able to single-handedly appoint the next mayor
The election campaign got underway on Saturday after the Central
Election Commission (CEC) formally registered six parties and
one alliance for the polls. Those include the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation.
The ARF, a major election contender, held its first campaign
rally at Yerevan's largest cinema on Monday, one week after it
pulled out of the ruling coalition in protest against
Sarkisian's conciliatory policy on Turkey.
The ARF's top candidate, Artsvik Minasian, pledged, among other
things, to end serious restrictions on gatherings and
demonstrations in Yerevan that were put in place following
Armenia's February 2008 presidential election.“We would make
every effort to ensure that those restrictions are not undue and
ludicrous,” said Minasian.
Speaking at the campaign kickoff on Monday, Armen Rustamian, the
chairman of the ARF Supreme Body of Armenia, stressed the need
for a healthy and democratic election environment that does not
use the municipal pole as a means to force regime change.
“We must realize that it is wrong to say that by winning
[control over] the municipality we can create a state within a
state and that the next step, regime change, will not be long in
coming: the president of the republic will resign and these
authorities will go,” said Armen Rustamian, the chairman of the
ARF's supreme body in Armenia.
The message was clearly addressed to the main opposition
Armenian National Congress that has pledged to turn the
municipal polls into a “second round” of the disputed
presidential election and use its possible victory for toppling
Sarkisian. The opposition group rallied thousands of supporters
in downtown Yerevan on Friday.
Its top leader, former President Levon Ter-Petrosian, described
proper conduct of the May 31 vote as Sarkisian's “last chance to
gain some authority with Armenian society and the international
community.” Ter-Petrosian did not say, though, what his 18-party
alliance will do if it considers the vote to have been
fraudulent.
Sarkisian's Republican Party of Armenia was scheduled to hold
its first campaign event late on Monday. The ruling party's list
of candidates is headed by the incumbent Mayor Gagik Beglarian,
controversially appointed to the post by the President only a
few months ahead of the polls.
The Republican Party has already been facing opposition
allegations that the Yerevan municipality is pressuring public
sector employees to pledge to vote for the Beglarian-led list.
The Republican Party's two junior partners in the governing
coalition kicked off their own campaigns on Saturday with indoor
presentations of their platforms. “We mean business,” Gagik
Tsarukian, the leader of the Prosperous Armenia Party, told
hundreds of supporters, summing up the party's main message to
Yerevan voters.
The Prosperous Armenia electoral list is topped by Health
Minister Harutiun Kushkian. “I am a Yerevantsi and know
Yerevantsis' concerns well,” he said during the presentation.
The other coalition party, Orinats Yerkir, also claimed to be
aiming for victory in the upcoming polls. “Orinats Yerkir is
participating in these elections with a resolve to win,” its
leader, Artur Baghdasarian, said as he outlined its campaign
manifesto.
The party's mayoral candidate, Heghine Bisharian, said
“kindness” will be the main feature of her campaign speeches.
“But if there are people who will say wicked things, especially
about us, we will definitely respond,” she told RFE/RL.
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