YEREVAN VOTES: POLITICAL FORCES ENGAGE IN MUNICIPAL RACE OVERSHADOWED BY POST-ELECTION DEVELOPMENTS
POLITICS | 12.04.13 | 11:37
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By JULIA HAKOBYAN
ArmeniaNow Deputy Editor
The elections to Yerevan’s Council of Elders, the main political event
of this spring, has gone on the back burner as the official campaign
kicked of last Sunday to coincide with preparations for ‘dueling’
inaugurations by the reelected president and his main opposition
challenger. They were further pushed to the background by a day of
protests accompanied with clashes between demonstrators and security
forces and its aftermath and implications for domestic politics.
Meanwhile, six political parties and one bloc have submitted
declarations of property and presented their election platforms
through programs and political ads on TV.
The municipal elections will take place on May 5 and citizens will
choose Yerevan’s 54th mayor (since 1879).
The top candidate on the proportional list of a party or a bloc
will become the new mayor if his party or bloc manages to win the
elections. The parties running for the elections are: the ruling
Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP),
Orinats Yerkir, Arakelutyun, (Mission), the Armenian National Congress
(ANC), ARF Dashnaktsutyun and the Barev(hello)Yerevan bloc.
The ruling Republican party’s list is headed by incumbent mayor
Taron Margaryan followed by chess grandmaster, Olympic Champion
Smbat Lputyan and rector of the Yerevan Architectural University
Hovhannes Tokmajyan. In its political ad the party emphasizes
the work done in the capital in the past couple of years, such as
Yerevan’s greening, cleaning, infrastructure improving. According
to the well-established election campaign’s “tradition” this time,
as during all previous elections, works on asphalting of the streets
have started throughout the city; the backyards are being cleaned,
and the children’s playgrounds are being renovated. The ostentatious
campaign included also mayor Margaryan’s reprimand to the director
of the Yerevan Metro, for the illegal construction of kiosks in the
underground. The campaign ads urge citizens to vote for “a better
Yerevan”. It also mentions the “good genetics” of the mayor, meaning
him being a son of Andranik Margaryan, Armenia’s late prime minister
(2000-2007).
The Republican Party announced that as a party interested in the
“proper organization and conduct” of the elections it condemns all
illegal practices, including vote buying.
Armen Martirosyan, the deputy chairman of Raffi Hovannisian’s
Heritage’s party, is the number one in the Hello Yerevan list in
the election. During the April 9 clashes with the security forces
Martirosyan suffered injuries and a broken nose, when he got hit by a
“red beret”, a special taskforce officer. It is noteworthy than during
the March 1 2008 clashes, Martirosyan got injured, while protecting
a policeman from a crowd of protestors.
The election program of Barev Yerevan will be ready in a few days,
and as Stepan Safaryan, a Heritage party representative, said at a
recent press conference, Barev Yerevan is a new platform of struggle
for them. The bloc will distribute booklets and organize meetings
with citizens to outline the ways of the city’s development and
city management methods. The campaign ad says Barev Yerevan is an
unprecedented bloc of intellectuals, parties, cultural figures and
teachers, who come to make “Raffi’s Barevolution” a reality.”
Orinats Yerkir is participating in the elections with the “We Can
Do More” slogan. The list is headed by Emergency Situations Minister
Armen Yeritsyan. The leader of the party, Secretary of the National
Security Council of Armenia Artur Baghdasaryan believes that the main
struggle will be between the current mayor and their candidate. The
party’s political ad says that the new mayor will exclude the point
construction in the city, and will involve representatives of the
civil society into the work of municipality. “Clean area – healthy
residents!” said the ad.
Meanwhile, another video material related to Orinats Yerkir has become
popular, it shows Heghine Bisharyan, the parliamentary faction’s
leader, and businessman Samvel Alexanyan walking down the stairs of
the sport and concert complex right after the president’s April 9
inauguration and discuss the upcoming banquet at Alexanyan’s Parvana
restaurant in honor of the newly elected president. The deputies
walking hand in hand say they became “brother and sister” by church.
Bisharyan tells journalists that Alexanyan is a very honest person
who does not have any property and “his eye is on his wife’s hand”.
Bisharyan then says she also needs help which make both of them to
burst into laughing. The video, depicting the frivolous nature of the
MPs’ conversation, was viewed over 53,000 times within just two days –
an impressive audience for Armenia.
ARF Dashnaktsutyun campaign’s slogan is “Yerevan, Change Armenia”. The
party list is headed by representative Armen Rustamyan. Despite
the failure in the previous city elections in 2009, when the party
gained less than 5 percent of the votes, Dashnaktsutyun believes in
its victory and intends to create a standing committee to control
the budget of the municipality of Yerevan. The party says it will
essentially increase Yerevan’s budget, will give priority to jobs
creation, providing high-quality services, protecting the residential
reserve, improving the city’s sanitary and environmental levels,
and within five years will at least double the green areas and water
surfaces.
“Yerevan is not just the Abovyan-Tumanyan crossroads,” says the
election manifesto of Gagik Tsarukyan, the leader of the former
coalition Prosperous Armenia party. “On May 5, we will choose not
the owners of Yerevan but city authorities, which should become real
partners to Yerevan residents. I assure you that by giving your vote
to Prosperous Armenia you will get a competent municipal authority.”
The party list is headed by ex-foreign minister Vartan Oskanian.
On April 7, at the start of the election campaign, Tsarukyan came up
with another announcement, saying that “if someone offends or insults a
member of Prosperous Armenia, I will consider it as a personal insult
and those who did so will have to deal with me.”
The announcement likely refers to the remark by Republican Mher
Sedrakyan, who earlier said to Hraparak newspaper: “Let’s take
Oskanian to Sovetashen (the remote district in Yerevan) and see if
he can get home. Will he be able to find where his own house is,
let alone become a mayor?”
Another Republican, Razmik Zohrabyan, reacted harshly to Tsarukyan’s
threats and said that “the slaveholding system formed within some
parties should not be spread on the whole political field.” “PAP has
a long way to go in order to reach the level of RPA,” said Zohrabyan.
Vahagn Khachatryan, Yerevan’s mayor in 1992-1996, heads the election
list of the Armenian National Congress party, whose motto is “Power to
People.” Khachatryan says the development of Yerevan requires, first
of all, solutions to environmental problems, and the ANC has a clear
program on it and the existing legal mechanisms provide an opportunity
to bring to account all offenders. The ex-mayor says he is missing
the image of “Yerevantsi” and is concerned over the reduction of the
green area of the city, where the illegal constructions are going
on right now. At the recent press conference Khachatryan, assessing
the pre-election situation, said the government has already begun the
process of election fraud. “We have no illusions about the fact that
the government will change its tactics, will declare a political will
to refrain from violations.”
The Arakelutyun party which was created in 2012, will be represented
in the elections by its member Mesrop Arakelyan, The party does not
have an election program yet, but its political ad says it has its
own approach to Yerevan’s problem. Among the priorities the party
mentions that residents of accident-prone buildings will be provided
with new apartments, elevators will be renovated and 24 hour water
supply will be available to all residents.
The election campaign will last until May 3, and analysts suggest
that the Council of Elders elections will be pretty competitive as
the opposition parties take part in it and most of the represented
parties have good chances for victory. The upcoming city elections
will be the last major electoral process until 2017 and some analysts
tend to believe that after it a political slack will come to Armenia.