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| 17:10:24 | 09-07-2005 | Politics |

APPOINTED OR ELECTED?

The complaints of the resident of Yerevan about the city authorities become
more and more frequent. Every week various groups of people gather at the
Yerevan city administration to say about the violation of their rights.

The Armenian human rights activists agree on one thing: the Mayor of Yerevan
should be elected and this should be fixed in the Constitution. `After all
the two thirds of the Armenian population live in Yerevan. I am sure that
the people are capable to elect the person they want to see at the head of
the community. In this way the people will have one influential instrument’,
human rights activist Vardan Harutyunyan says. Another human rights
activist, chairman of the Helsinki Association shares the opinion. However
he is rather skeptical about the situation in Armenia. `I doubt that fair
elections can be held in Armenia during the next 10-15 years’, he said.

Will the elected Mayor change the situation in the capital city? Vardan
Harutyunyan find it rather hard to answer this question. `Let us agree that
the word `elections’ imply real fair election, but no their Armenian
variant’, he says. `If the Mayor is elected not by the executive power but
by the residents, he will certainly defend their interests. Today the city
administration fully depends on the government’, he added.

The human rights activists do not agree that the Mayor can be elected by the
community council. Vardan Harutyunyan considers that in case the order of
election of the Mayor is fixed not in the Constitution but in a law, the
incumbent authorities will use this law in their own interests.

Lena Badeyan