The ruling Civil Contract party won only 25 percent of the vote there, compared with 39 percent polled by a local bloc led by former Vanadzor Mayor Mamikon Aslanian.
Aslanian was thus well-placed to regain his post lost in October. But ten days after the election, he was arrested on corruption charges rejected by him as politically motivated.
Later in December, Armenia’s Administrative Court blocked the first session of Vanadzor’s new municipal council empowered to elect the mayor. It cited an appeal against the election results lodged by another pro-government party that fared poorly in the ballot.
The appeal was subsequently rejected by two other courts. The Bright Armenia Party responded by appealing to the higher Court of Cassation. The latter has still not said whether it will take up the case.
In the meantime, the Administrative Court banned in January the new Vanadzor council from holding sessions until July. Local and Yerevan-based opposition figures accused the court of acting on Pashinian’s orders.
Amendments to an Armenian law on local government quickly passed by the National Assembly empower the prime minister to name acting heads of communities whose newly elected councils fail to elect mayors within 20 days after local polls.
Vahagn Hovakimian, one of the authors of the amendments affiliated with Civil Contract, said it is aimed at addressing “disruption of normal governance” in such communities.
“We have such a problem in Vanadzor at the moment,” Hovakimian said during a short parliament debate held under a so-called “urgent procedure.”
Opposition lawmakers dismissed the official rationale for amending the law. They insisted that Pashinian is doing everything to retain control over Vanadzor and possibly other communities against the will of local voters.
“We are discussing an issue which solely applies to a community or communities where [the ruling party] failed to take power,” said Agnesa Khamoyan of the Hayastan alliance.
“If the authors of this bill were a bit more honest they would call it a bill on disenfranchising Mamikon Aslanian and the people of Vanadzor,” charged another Hayastan parliamentarian.
Four other communities were also left in limbo as a result of nationwide local elections held on December 5. Pashinian’s party was defeated or failed to win outright there. Opposition politicians and human rights campaigners in Yerevan accused the authorities of sabotaging the election of their new mayors to prevent them from falling under opposition control.
In one such community comprising the town of Vartenis and surrounding villages, police cordoned off the municipal administration building in early January to prevent a local opposition figure, Aharon Khachatrian, from taking over as mayor. Khachatrian finally managed to take office last month.
