Citizens of Yerevan electing the first City Council

armradio.am
31.05.2009 11:13

Residents of Yerevan are electing the first City Council today.
According to the Law on Local Self-Governance in Yerevan, the 65-member
City Council will be elected with the proportional representative
system for the term of four years. Seven political forces are running
for the Yerevan City Council – the Republican Party of Armenia, the
Prosperous Armenia Party, Orinats Yerkir Party, the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutyun, the Labor-Socialist Party of
Armenia, the people’s Party and the Armenian National Congress bloc.

According to the Electoral Code, the parties and blocs should cross the
threshold of 7 and 9% respectively. If any of the parties receives more
than 40% but not an absolute majority, it gets the absolute majority of
seats in the City Council, and the rest of mandates are distributed
among the candidate lists entitled to participate in the distribution
of mandates.

The Law on Local Self-Governance in Yerevan states that any of the
forces gets more than 50 seats in the City Council, i.e. an absolute
majority, the person on the top of its list is considered an elected
Mayor. If none of the parties gets an absolute majority, the Mayor is
elected by the City Council through secret voting.

The elections of the Mayor take place during the first sitting of the
newly elected City Council. The first sitt
ing is convened after the
official publication of the decision on the election of the members of
the Council. Before the Mayor is elected the sitting is chaired by the
eldest member of the Council.

The Mayor will assume office on the third day after being elected by
swearing in during the City Council.

All 439 precincts were opened in 13 electoral districts of Yerevan at 8
a.m., where 771 477 citizens of Yerevan will have an opportunity to
participate in the elections for the Yerevan City Council.
International and local observers are following the voting process.

According to the Electoral Code, the preliminary results will be summed
up no later than 24 hours after the end of the voting.