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| 12:24:04 | 09-07-2005 | Politics |
MAYOR OF YEREVAN SHOULD BE ELECTED
On the demand of the Venice Commission the RA authorities resigned
themselves to the fact that the Mayor of Yerevan should be elected.
Nevertheless they have left a loophole: the parliamentary majority will
spare no effort to make the elections not indirect, that is to say by the
elected community council.
`Thus the elected Mayor will be a marionette. About 75 members of the
community council will elect the Mayor. The 70 people, who elect the Mayor
by order of the authorities, will demand lands, money and business from
him’, independent deputy Manuk Gasparyan stated in a conversation with our
reporter. `In this way it would be better to leave the Mayor be elected’, he
added. To note, he is going to run for the post.
The parliamentary opposition, which is supposed to share the opinion of the
leadership after returning from Strasbourg, is against the election of the
Mayor by the community council. Justice faction member Shavarsh Kocharyan
considers that the Mayor should be elected by people. `As a matter of fact
the European Charter on Local Self-Government does not exclude election by
the community council; however a united logic should function in the
country: either the Mayor is elected by the community council (like in many
European states) or on the contrary. Presently we want to implement a double
logic. It does not beneath any criticism. Why Yerevan should differ from any
other community? The Venice Commission is content, since such elections meet
the commitments of the European Charter. They seem not to be interest in the
result,’ he says.
RPA leader Galust Sahakyan is convinced that a community council will
function in Yerevan and it will elect one of its members the Mayor by secret
vote. In his words, such mechanism functioned in 1990-1995 and no problems
emerged.
Opinions of the members of People’s deputy group differ. Some think that the
Mayor should be elected directly, the others think that he should be elected
by the community council. Group member Mkrtich Minasyan considers that the
Mayor should be elected by the people. He notes that if elected by the
community council he will account only to the council. `If we want a strong
Mayor, he should be elected directly and be responsible for the people In
this case he will have more power and authority’, he resumed.
Diana Markosyan
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress