RULING PARTIES CLASH IN YEREVAN CITY COUNCIL

Asbarez Staff
Nov 18th, 2009

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)-Representatives of Armenia’s two largest governing
parties clashed in the Yerevan municipal assembly on Wednesday in a
dispute that could undermine their hitherto close relationship.

Members of the city council representing the Prosperous Armenia Party
threatened to relinquish their mandates after its majority controlled
by President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party pushed through a
legal amendment significantly easing quorum requirements.

Sessions of the 65-member Council of Elders, elected on May 31, have
until now had to be attended by at least 33 members in order to be
considered valid. The amendment to the council statutes proposed by
Yerevan’s Republican Mayor Gagik Beglarian lowered that threshold
to 17.

The Prosperous Armenia faction in the council strongly protested
against the move. "If we have 65 elected councilors and 50 of them
usually attend sessions, then what’s the problem?" its leader Arman
Vartanian said. He said the Republican majority may be trying to
"reduce the role of the Council of Elders" and warned that his faction
may boycott assembly sessions.

Beglarian, who chairs those sessions, dismissed the objections,
saying that the amendment stems from a law regulating the council’s
activities and cutting short the debate. "We didn’t decide to hold
a debate, did we?" he said.

"Mr. Mayor, we are not satisfied by the explanation," replied
Vartanian. "That’s your problem," shot back Beglarian.

"All this reminds me of the Communist system," the Prosperous Armenia
representative told RFE/RL after the ensuing vote. "A one-party
autocratic system. If you have no forum where you can express yourself,
then there is no place for a minority faction in such a structure."

Prosperous Armenia holds 17 seats in the legislature, compared with
35 seats controlled by the Republicans. The remaining 13 seats were
allotted to the opposition Armenian National Congress as a result of
the disputed municipal elections held on May 31. The Congress refused
to take up the mandates in protest against what it called massive
vote rigging.

The mayoral race was also marred by several violent clashes between
Republican and Prosperous Armenia activists in various parts of the
Armenian capital. Both parties played down those incidents, saying
that they will continue to share power on the national level.