Armenian PM's Political Party Sees Support Slip In Local Elections In Yerevan

The ruling party's mayoral candidate, Tigran Avinian, leads a campaign rally in Yerevan on September 15.

YEREVAN -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party lost its overwhelming majority in Yerevan’s municipal assembly as a result of local elections on September 17 marked by record-low turnout.

Nevertheless, it may still manage to install the next mayor of the Armenian capital with the help of another party thought to be allied to Pashinian.

Civil Contract's mayoral candidate in Yerevan elections is current Deputy Mayor Tigran Avinian, who served as Armenia’s deputy prime minister in 2018-2021.

Preliminary election results released on September 18 showed Civil Contract doing better than all other contenders and winning roughly 33 percent of the vote. But it fell well short of an absolute majority in the Council of Elders, the body empowered to appoint the mayor.

In the biggest surprise of the day, a party led by Vartan Ghukasian, a controversial video blogger based in the United States, garnered 9.7 percent and also won seats in the city council.

The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) said that as of closing of polls at 8 p.m. on September 17, turnout was 28.5 percent, representing 234,553 voters out of 824,250 eligible.

Local observers reported recording 204 election violations in the voting process at 79 locations in the Yerevan, a city of 1.1 million people that has about one-third of the Caucasus nation’s eligible voters.

A total of 13 political parties and one bloc were vying for 65 seats in the assembly, called the Council of Elders.

SEE ALSO: Is Armenia Turning To The West?

The September 17 poll followed a 24-day election campaign, which, according to Vahagn Hovakimian, head of the CEC, took place in a relatively “polite and calm” atmosphere.

Opposition parties as well as some observers, however, have accused Civil Contract of foul play, saying its candidate used administrative resources in his campaign, a claim denied by the ruling party.

The CEC said three local and two international organizations were accredited to monitor the elections. It added that 40 local and three foreign media outlets received accreditation to cover the voting on election day.