The country’s second largest city was run Samvel Balasanian, a local businessman, until October 2021. Although Balasanian decided not to seek another term in office, a newly created bloc bearing his name participated in the elections and garnered 36.6 percent of the vote, giving it 14 seats in the 33-member city council empowered to elect the mayor.
In a serious setback for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Civil Contract finished second with 11 seats. The remaining eight seats were distributed among three opposition groups.
In line with the power-sharing deal, the new Gyumri council appointed the Balasanian Bloc’s Vardges Samsonian as mayor and two Civil Contract members as deputy mayors.
In a statement, Pashinian’s party said both vice-mayors will step down because it has decided to end its alliance with the Balasanian Bloc. It said vaguely that Civil Contract does not want to be part of what it called “shady governance.”
Armenia - Vardges Samsonian attends a public discussion in Gyumri, October 15, 2019.
The statement did not clarify whether the party will try to oust Samsonian through a vote of no confidence or force a fresh election in Gyumri. Civil Contract representatives in Yerevan said the party will reveal its further steps during a news conference on December 11.
The Balasanian Bloc and Samsonian did not immediately react to the development. A spokeswoman for the Gyumri mayor told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that the bloc will make a statement in the coming days.
The three other groups represented in the city council also did not rush to officially comment on Civil Contract’s move. One of them, the Zartonk bloc, controls four seats in the council. Its leader, Vartevan Hakobian, did not rule out the possibility of teaming up with Civil Contract or the Balasanian Bloc.
Armenia - A session of the municipal council of Gyumri, February 6, ,2023.
Narek Mirzoyan, a council member affiliated with former President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party, accused Armenia’s political leadership of seeking to “destabilize” local communities run by elected opposition mayors. Mirzoyan pointed to Tuesday’s controversial ouster of the head of a major community in neighboring Lori province comprising the town of Alaverdi and two dozen other towns and villages.
The mayor, Arkadi Tamazian, lost his narrow majority in the Alaverdi council after one of its members representing his Aprelu Yerkir party defected to Civil Contract in July. Pashinian’s party capitalized on the defection to replace Tamazian by its local leader amid serious procedural violations alleged by the Armenian opposition and some civil society members. Hundreds of police officers were deployed in Alaverdi on Tuesday to help the party install the new mayor.
Levon Barseghian, a veteran civic activist based in Gyumri, linked the end of the local power-sharing arrangement to the Alaverdi power grab, saying that Pashinian and his political team are no longer willing to tolerate opposition control of local governments across Armenia. He said they may now use “promises, blackmail or political bribes” to try to co-opt other members of the Gyumri council and gain a majority there.
“Everyone must bear in mind yesterday’s events in Alaverdi,” Barseghian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.