DISTRICT CHIEFS OPPOSED TO YEREVAN BILL
By Hovannes Shoghikian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Oct 25 2007

The elected heads of several administrative districts of Yerevan voiced
on Thursday objections to a government bill that would transfer the
authority to appoint them from local residents to the city mayor.

The draft law, the main points of which were made public by the
government last week, stems from one of the 2005 constitutional
amendments that gives the Armenian capital the status of a local
community governed by elected officials.

The Yerevan mayors have until now been appointed by the president of
the republic. Under the government bill, they shall be chosen by a
city council to be elected by universal suffrage.

The bill also envisages the dissolution of the elected administrations
of the city’s ten administrative districts currently run by elected
mayors and "councils of elders." The district chiefs would now be
appointed by the Yerevan mayor.

"A district head appointed by the Yerevan mayor will be accountable
only to the mayor, whereas an elected district mayor is accountable
to his voters," said Surik Ghukasian, mayor of the western Davitashen
district.

Hovannes Shahinian, mayor of the bigger Arabkir district, agreed,
saying that elected prefects should do a better job of running their
communities. Shahinian, who is a member of the governing Republican
Party, predicted that the central government will eventually realize
its mistake and revert to the existing system of community governance.

"I think that we would eventually return to the system existing today,"
he told a news conference.

"It is desirable to have elected district prefects," said Ruben
Hovsepian, who runs the Ajapnyak district.

All three community prefects made it clear that they will not challenge
the government or lobby it to make corresponding changes in the bill.

At least one of their colleagues, Aghvan Grigorian of the
Malatia-Sebastia district, hailed the planned abolition of district
elections. "The good thing about the bill is that it will make the
city a single unit and make it more manageable," argued Grigorian.