Police officers are not allowing reporters to enter the town hall building of Vardenis, Armenia.
The reporters want to talk to the ruling Civil Contract Party’s (CCP) mayoral candidate, incumbent mayor Aram Melkonyan, who is at the town hall building.
The police have set up a human wall, do not permit reporters to enter the town hall building, but do not provide any legal justification for not allowing the reporters from entering the building.
Numerous officers from the police special forces also have arrived outside the Vardenis town hall building.
To note, the police did not allow the newly elected members of the Vardenis Council of Elders to enter the building, and for that reason, the inauguration of mayor-elect Aharon Khachatryan took place Tuesday at the courtyard of the town hall building.
As reported earlier, in the December 5 local elections in Vardenis, the ruling CCP had won 13 seats, the opposition Aharon Khachatryan bloc—10 seats, and the opposition United Vardenis—4 seats in the town council. Then, the opposition forces had signed a memorandum to form a coalition, and therefore the number of their town council seats was enough to elect their mayor candidate.
After that, former mayor of Vardenis Aram Harutyunyan, who topped the electoral list of United Vardenis, was charged in a criminal case against him and was arrested.
The first session of the new Vardenis Council of Elders had taken place on December 30. But before the session started, the police had attempted to apprehend another opposition member of the council, Aharon Khachatryan, who is the opposition’s candidate for mayor. Three hours later, the opposition finally had managed to convene a session and elect Khachatryan mayor. The CCP members of this council, however, had not attended this session.