Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian claimed on Wednesday that “criminal” local elites were responsible for his Civil Contract party’s defeat in a weekend mayoral election in Kapan, the capital of Armenia’s southeastern Syunik province.
According to the official results, a 33-year-old local businessman, Gevorg Parsian, won the election with 54 percent of the vote. His main rival, Civil Contract’s Narek Babayan, got 44 percent.
The election outcome came as a surprise given Pashinian’s popularity in the country. The premier personally campaigned for his party’s mayoral candidate when he travelled to Kapan two days before the ballot.
Pashinian put a brave face on the defeat when he first publicly reacted to it on Monday. He portrayed it as a triumph of democracy, arguing that the local election was not marred by reports of serious fraud or abuse of government levers.
Pashinian struck a different note when he spoke about the mayoral race at length in the Armenian parliament two days later.
“The vote in Kapan and its results are legal,” he said in a speech. “The official vote results reflect the choice of people.”
“But my political position is that the criminal and economic elite had an unhealthy influence on the election results only because [last spring’s] revolution has not yet reached everyone and because not everyone feels and appreciates their freedom,” he added.
“A revolution will not occur in Syunik as long as there are economic and criminal forces in the region who think that they are more powerful and potent than the people’s state authority,” Pashinian declared.
The premier did not name any names. But he did say that former President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) hopes to use “the Kapan model” in the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Pashinian also dismissed suggestions that his controversial decision to appoint a retired police general as Syunik governor on the eve of the Kapan election contributed to the setback. He insisted that Hunan Poghosian, who was the first deputy chief of the Armenian police under Sarkisian, is the kind of individual who can ensure the rule of law in the remote region.
Syunik’s provincial administration as well as the HHK’s regional branch were headed until this summer by Vahe Hakobian. The latter is reportedly linked to the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine (ZCMC) located in Kajaran, a smaller town about 10 kilometers west of Kapan.
ZCMC employs 3,600 people, making it one of the country’s leading corporate taxpayers and employers. A German metals group, Cronimet, gained a 75 percent stake in the mining giant in 2004.
The rest of ZCMC is controlled by two obscure Armenian firms. Ownership of those firms has long been a subject of speculation in Armenia, with some local commentators linking them to former President Sarkisian or his predecessor Robert Kocharian.
Armenia - Mayoral candidate Gevorg Parsian (R) holds an election campaign rally in Kapan, 18 October 2018.
Parsian, the newly elected Kapan mayor, is a lawyer by education who has managed a local construction firm until now. He is not affiliated with any party.
In an October 10 interview with a provincial newspaper, “Syuniats Yerkir,” Parsian admitted having “many friends” in ZCMC. But he insisted that he did not represent “the Kajaran elite” in the mayoral race.
Parsian hailed the Pashinian-led “velvet revolution” that toppled the Sarkisian administration in June. He said that dramatic regime change inspired him to run for mayor of his hometown.
Parsian further confirmed media reports that in the early 2000s he was sentenced to one year in prison for stabbing and seriously wounding another man. He was unrepentant about that incident, saying that he defended “my and my girlfriend’s honor and dignity.”
“I am not sorry for what happened,” he added.