Armenia’s leading political groups have not yet nominated candidates for the vacant post of Yerevan’s mayor ahead of fresh municipal elections expected soon.
The city’s previous mayor, Taron Markarian, resigned on July 9 under apparent pressure from Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and his political allies.
Markarian, who had been in office since 2011, is a senior member of former President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia (HHK). He was reelected by the current city council formed by Yerevan residents in May 2017.
The HHK-controlled council deliberately failed to elect a new mayor on July 16. Under Armenian law, the central government can now disband the legislature and call fresh municipal elections. A spokesman for Pashinian said earlier this month that the government will not do that before July 30.
That means the polls will not be held before September. Observers believe that Pashinian’s Civil Contract party will be the favorite to win them.
At least four members of Civil Contract have expressed their desire to be its mayoral candidate. Those are comedian Hayk Marutian, parliament deputy Alen Simonian, Deputy Labor Minister Zaruhi Batoyan and an aide to Pashinian, Srbuhi Ghazarian.
The party’s governing board discussed Marutian’s and Ghazarian’s candidacies late on Tuesday. It will meet with the two other potential candidates in the coming days.
It remains unclear whether Civil Contract will contest the elections on its own or jointly with the two other parties making up the Yelk alliance. “Wait for one week and you will find out,” said Eduard Aghajanian, the chief of the prime minister’s staff.
The May 2017 vote was boycotted by Pashinian’s coalition partners, the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) of businessman Gagik Tsarukian and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun).
A senior BHK figure, Naira Zohrabian, said the party will join the mayoral race this time around.“Active discussions” are now underway on who should be its mayoral candidate, said Zohrabian.
According to Arsen Hambardzumian, a Dashnaktsutyun leader, the party is “inclined” to participate in the upcoming polls.
Meanwhile, a senior HHK member, Ruben Tadevosian, said the former ruling party has not yet decided whether it will also enter the fray. “When the date of the city council election is determined we will discuss that and let you know,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am).