According to preliminary results reported by the Central Election Commission, Civil Contract’s David Danielian received about 29 percent of the vote in the November 15 ballot. The winner, Gevork Parsian of the opposition Shant Alliance, gained nearly 70 percent of the vote, according to the same official source.
This is the third major town in Syunik where Civil Contract has suffered setbacks in local elections this fall.
While winning in several communities across Armenia, including in Syunik, in the October 17 elections, the Pashinian party still lost in the southern province’s key towns of Goris and Meghri to candidates representing different opposition parties. Last month Civil Contract also failed to win in municipal elections in Gyumri (Shirak province) where it eventually formed a coalition with the winning pro-opposition alliance.
In contrast, in the November 15 elections, Civil Contract’s candidates managed to win by a large margin in Stepanavan (Lori province) and Ijevan (Tavush province).
Observers did not report major violations during Armenia’s local elections on Sunday.
On his Facebook account, Daniel Ioannisian, programs coordinator at the Union of Informed Citizens who monitored the elections in Kapan, noted, however, a fairly high voter turnout in the town, over 63 percent, which is not typical for local elections in Armenia.
Kapan is one of Syunik’s communities that became a border town as a result of Azerbaijan’s regaining several Armenian-controlled districts around Nagorno-Karabakh in last year’s war. Pro-opposition sentiments have been observed to run high in most such areas.