According to Ruben Harutyunyan, the head of the local government and community affairs division, department of districts, regional administration of Shirak, in 68 out of 86 communities of the region of Shirak, the community leaders were reelected as a result of the elections – there are only 18 new village headmen.
Let us mention that the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) is at the top – the number of the RPA village headmen in the region of Shirak has increased from 43 to 49. The Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) doesn’t spare efforts to strengthen its position in this region either – the number of PAP community leaders has increased from 2 to 6.
Instead, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) loses ground – the number of its village headmen has shrunk from 8 to 7. By the way, although 7 women struggled for becoming a village headman in different communities, only one of them – the village headman of Argenadem – has been reelected. “We have 18 new community leaders, 6 community leaders didn’t announce their candidacies – those are Gyumri, Getap, Haykadzor, Shirakavan, Saragyugh, Vardaghbyur – 2 of them withdrew their candidacies, they announced their candidacies, then, withdrew them – those are Mets Mantash and Saralanj – and 10 community leaders have not been reelected as a result of competition. Those are Artik, Horom, Beniamin, Krashen, Hatsik, Voskehask, Aghin, Lanjik, Ghazanchi,” the regional administration official informed.
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He also said that there had been no election competition in 22 communities – one candidate had remained in each of the communities after candidates had registered and then withdrawn their candidacies.
There was heated competition in Artik, Mets Mantash, Voskehask, Azatan, Marmashen and other communities.
Let us mention that some incidents were registered in Lanjik, where pre-election showdowns between the supporters of two candidates announced here took place and people from both sides found themselves in prison. Two Republicans competed in this community – village headman Sedrak Arakelyan and Ara Mardoyan, the school director’s son.
According to villagers, in Azatan, RPA member Karush Azatyan, the former village headman, rallied influential natives of Azatan and guest workers residing in Russia to support him. Nevertheless, he didn’t manage to win losing to the incumbent village headman, also RPA member Vardan Iklikyan. “I have heard such speculations too, the election was held quite normally, if the former village headman had done such a thing, he would have been elected with a big margin, but it hasn’t happened. That same guest worker is a resident of the village of Azatan, the other one is his godfather, godson, neighbor or they are people who know each other, should that guest worker come and necessarily vote for that person? The incumbent village headman has been elected with a big margin. If the former village headman had taken such a serious step, he would certainly have been elected. And if he hasn’t been, it means that there have been no such steps taken, but there were speculations, there different kinds of speculations – say, his son did different kinds of active work in Russia or they had the guest workers rise up etc.,” the regional administration official confirmed our information.
Nune AREVSHATYAN
