Campaigning for the May 31 mayoral polls in Yerevan has gone into full swing, with the main election contenders holding rallies and other gathering on a virtually daily basis.
The presumptive election favorite, the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) and its top candidate, incumbent Mayor Gagik Beglarian, rallied several hundred people in the city’s Nork-Marash district on Tuesday. The rally was preceded by a pop music concert organized by the HHK.
Beglarian assured the crowd that he will multiply his efforts to address Yerevan’s socioeconomic and other problems if the party led by President Serzh Sarkisian wins a majority in the new municipal council. Such a victory would enable the HHK to re-install him as city mayor.
“I am asking you to oblige us with your votes so we can be obliged to work for the city of Yerevan,” said Beglarian.
“May 31 will not be the day of getting a position, working as a department head in the municipality, effecting leadership change or winning political dividends for anyone,” he added. “May 31 will be the birthday of all Yerevan residents.”
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), which walked out of the HHK-led governing coalition late last month, sought to win over hundreds of female voters that attended an indoor gathering organized by its leadership. The party’s mayoral candidate, Artsvik Minasian, told them that good governance in the Armenian capital will be impossible unless it involves a large number of women.
“If the woman’s voice is not integrated into municipal governance we will have no prospects for economic development,” said Minasian. He said a greater female engagement in urban development would “mitigate the resonance of a desire to create material values and combine it with many ways of organizing work and leisure.”
“We will be guided by logic of prevention of consequences, rather than their elimination,” added Minasian, summing up Dashnaktsutyun’s message to the broader Yerevan electorate.
Meanwhile, the only female mayoral candidate, Heghine Bisharian of the Orinats Yerkir Party, which is represented in the central government by three ministers, pledged to turn Yerevan into “one family” and claimed to be enjoying growing popular support. Speaking at a news conference, Bisharian detailed her party’s election manifesto and campaign pledges.
One of those pledges stood out. “We would plant trees and create nice gardens on the rooftops of all apartment buildings in town,” she said.
The main opposition election contender, the Armenian National Congress (HAK) of Levon Ter-Petrosian, had no major campaign events scheduled for Tuesday. The HAK held a big rally in Yerevan’s southern Shengavit district on Monday.
Beglarian assured the crowd that he will multiply his efforts to address Yerevan’s socioeconomic and other problems if the party led by President Serzh Sarkisian wins a majority in the new municipal council. Such a victory would enable the HHK to re-install him as city mayor.
“I am asking you to oblige us with your votes so we can be obliged to work for the city of Yerevan,” said Beglarian.
“May 31 will not be the day of getting a position, working as a department head in the municipality, effecting leadership change or winning political dividends for anyone,” he added. “May 31 will be the birthday of all Yerevan residents.”
Armenia -- Voters hand letters to Gagik Tsarukian, the leader of the pro-government Prosperous Armenia Party, at a campaign rally in Yerevan on May 19, 2009.
The Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK), one of the HHK’s junior coalition partners, attracted a larger crowd as it campaigned in another Yerevan district, Kanaker-Zeytun, on Tuesday. The BHK’s leader, businessman Gagik Tsarukian, and top election candidate, Health Minister Harutiun Kushkian both spoke at the rally.
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), which walked out of the HHK-led governing coalition late last month, sought to win over hundreds of female voters that attended an indoor gathering organized by its leadership. The party’s mayoral candidate, Artsvik Minasian, told them that good governance in the Armenian capital will be impossible unless it involves a large number of women.
“If the woman’s voice is not integrated into municipal governance we will have no prospects for economic development,” said Minasian. He said a greater female engagement in urban development would “mitigate the resonance of a desire to create material values and combine it with many ways of organizing work and leisure.”
“We will be guided by logic of prevention of consequences, rather than their elimination,” added Minasian, summing up Dashnaktsutyun’s message to the broader Yerevan electorate.
Meanwhile, the only female mayoral candidate, Heghine Bisharian of the Orinats Yerkir Party, which is represented in the central government by three ministers, pledged to turn Yerevan into “one family” and claimed to be enjoying growing popular support. Speaking at a news conference, Bisharian detailed her party’s election manifesto and campaign pledges.
One of those pledges stood out. “We would plant trees and create nice gardens on the rooftops of all apartment buildings in town,” she said.
The main opposition election contender, the Armenian National Congress (HAK) of Levon Ter-Petrosian, had no major campaign events scheduled for Tuesday. The HAK held a big rally in Yerevan’s southern Shengavit district on Monday.