YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am)—The post of Yerevan’s mayor will remain formally vacant until the next municipal elections slated for this fall, Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party announced on Tuesday.
The tactical decision is clearly designed to boost the party’s and its mayoral candidate Tigran Avinyan’s chances in the elections.
Yerevan’s last mayor, Hrachya Sargsyan, stepped down on March 17 after only 15 months in office. The Armenian capital has since been effectively run by Avinyan, one of its deputy mayors.
Under Armenian law, the city council controlled by Civil Contract has to meet by April 11 to elect a new mayor. The council majority leader, Armen Galjyan, said that he and the other pro-government members of the municipal assembly will boycott the vote and thus make it null and void.
“Our faction has decided not to elect a new mayor given that only a few months remain before the next elections,” said Galjyan.
Isabella Abgaryan, an independent member of the council, deplored the boycott. She said Armenia’s political leadership opted it for it simply because Avinyan is not a council member and therefore not eligible for the post of mayor now.
“They can’t nominate someone else because that person could develop ambitions after becoming mayor, which would interfere with their plans,” Abgaryan told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. Avinyan will thus remain Yerevan’s de facto mayor and exploit his power of incumbency during the mayoral race, she said.
None of Armenia’s major opposition groups have fielded mayoral candidates so far.
The last municipal elections were held in September 2018. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s party won the overwhelming majority of seats in the city council and installed TV comedian Hayk Marutyan as mayor. The council ousted Marutyan in December 2021 after he fell out with Pashinyan.
