HERITAGE PARTY STAYS OUT OF YEREVAN CITY ELECTIONS
by Armen Hakobyan
Armenian Reporter
Thursday March 26, 2009
Yerevan – One alliance and six political parties have submitted their
lists of candidates for the 65 seats on the Yerevan City Council to the
Central Electoral Commission (CEC). The election is slated for May 31.
The biggest surprise by far was the announcement made by the Heritage
Party, founded by Raffi Hovannisian, the only opposition party in
parliament, that they have decided not to run in the election.
The Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) is running 180 candidates for
the 65 seats. (If someone declines to take a seat in the council
or later resigns, the next person on the list takes the vacant
seat. Thus the large number of candidates.) The top slot – reserved
for the party’s choice for mayor – is occupied by Gagik Beglarian,
who is the current mayor. The Armenian National Congress is running
167 candidates, with former president Levon Ter-Petrossian in the lead
spot. The Prosperous Armenia Party has 122 candidates, led by Health
Minister Harutyun Kushkian. The Armenian Revolutionary Federation
(ARF) is running 51 candidates, with member of parliament Artsvik
Minasian in the lead spot. The Country of Laws Party has nominated
member of parliament Heghine Bisharian to head up their list of 74
candidates. Tigran Karapetian of the People’s Party leads his party’s
list of 20 candidates. And the Armenian Labor-Socialist Party, with
Movses Shahverdian in the lead, proposes 29 candidates.
Overall 643 candidates have been nominated to fill the 65 available
seats of the city council. Since the Armenian National Congress is
participating as an alliance of parties, it has to get no less than
9 percent of the vote to be represented at City Hall. For the six
parties running individually, the threshold is 7 percent.
The election campaign will formally begin on May 2 and end on midnight
May 29. The elections will take place on May 31 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
On March 23, Heritage announced with regret, "that it was impossible to
reach an [agreement] with the Armenian National Congress" on a joint
list of candidates. The announcement sought to draw parallels between
the government and Mr. Ter-Petrossian’s opposition alliance. It first
condemned "the authorities’ limitations put on the freedom of speech
and the ongoing firm establishment of an environment of intolerance,
the ‘instructed’ and unsubstantiated accusations against Heritage
and its founder Raffi K. Hovannisian disseminated over the years by
the media that serve the ruling administration, the deluge of lies
and disinformation which periodically grows worse especially before
elections." It then noted "certain oppositional media’s attempts to
imitate the aforesaid defective mode of operation in the recent week
and doing this with the silent support by the [Armenian National
Congress]."
According to the Heritage announcement, if two opposition entities
run in the election, "the ensuing clash will be inevitable even in
the case of exerting the greatest of efforts to prevent it, and the
victims will be the whole opposition and the entire people."
Some supporters of the Armenian National Congress are calling on
the Heritage Party to cede its seats on the electoral commissions to
the Congress. Each party in parliament is entitled to a seat on the
Central Electoral Commission and regional and local commissions.
Meanwhile, Mr. Beglarian, the mayor, has decided to improve conditions
– especially landscaping and illumination – in the courtyards of
the city. For this purpose seeds have been specially brought in from
the Netherlands.