The Yerevan City Council election is approaching. Are political parties active, how do they feel about participating in the city council election? www.aravot.am got answers to these questions from Emin Yeritsyan, the president of the Association of Armenian Communities. In his opinion, the parties are active, and everyone is interested in participating. “Political parties would avoid local elections in the past for psychological reasons, thinking that if they lost, their popularity would shrink, whereas during the Yerevan City Council election, all parties will be active. Not participating will be a mistake, particularly given the fact that after
the parliamentary and presidential elections, many people have realized the importance of local elections.” Talking about the offer of Levon Zurabyan, the ANC coordinator, to jointly participate in the city council election, Mr. Yeritsyan said: “The Yerevan City Council election is risky for the ANC, given the results of the recent parliamentary and presidential elections. That is why the ANC tries to participate in coalition with other parties. Generally, local elections are like parliamentary elections with proportional representation, and it is not logical for parties to form coalitions before elections. It is logical when individual parties participate in the election, win votes and can form coalitions in the city council, since uniting in advance will cause conflicts, conflicts of interest. Describing the situation, I think that parties will not participate in the election with a common list. The only option of a union can be a common list of the Heritage Party and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, but not that of the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) and the ANC.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
