The parties and coalitions participating in the Yerevan City Council election to take place on May 5 have already submitted their lists. The PAP has submitted a 195-man list, in which the unemployed account for the majority. Let us note that the majority of persons included in the list represent the PAP, only 20 people on the list are nonpartisan, and two are from the United Labor Party (ULP). Vartan Oskanian, Gurgen Arsenyan, and Abraham Manukyan are on the top of the PAP list. There is information that the PAP wants Abraham Manukyan among the mentioned three persons to become the mayor of Yerevan. He is one of the owners of Nor Dzoraberd, has financial firms, and is engaged in importing coffee. It is interesting that in the past, he became an MP on the RPA list for proportional representation, and Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan appointed him a deputy minister of healthcare of Armenia in 2007. And his son is now the head of a department at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. The issue that Robert Kocharyan, the second president of the Republic of Armenia, had a strong influence on the process of drawing up the PAP list has been exploited recently. Coincidentally or as a result of that influence, Irina Kocharyan, a daughter of Valeri Kocharyan, R. Kocharyan’s brother, is number 42 on the PAP list. There
are teachers of Yerevak, Mkhitar Sebastatsi, and Yerevan College of Law and Economics, employees of the Zvartnots airport, private entrepreneurs, an operator of a bookmaking company, and suppliers on the PAP list next to people famous among the public. The RPA has also submitted a 195-man list. There is an abundance of famous people here. Taron Margaryan, the current mayor, Smbat Lputyan, the director of the Armenian Chess Academy Foundation, and Hovhannes Tokmajyan, the rector of the State Engineering University of Armenia (SEUA), are among the top three. There are many famous artists on the RPA list – Ara Yernjakyan, Martin Vardazaryan, Levon Igityan, Mikayel Dovlatyan, and Kamo Hovhannisyan, the director of the National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet. There are many people among those included in the RPA list whose names are linked with Samvel Alexanyan and his businesses. For example, Artur Petrosyan, the deputy director of the Lus Astgh Sugar LLC, is number 44 on the list. Let us note that the Lus Astgh Sugar (the Akhuryan sugar factory) company – it is linked with Samvel Alexanyan, a National Assembly member – has decreased its taxes by 95%. Besides, the number of employees at the company has decreased at least twice. Vahram Kirakosyan, the director of the supermarket chain Yerevan City, Alex Grig LLC, is number 88 on the list. Arshak Amiryan, the chief security officer of the supermarket chain Yerevan City, Alex Grig LLC, is also on the RPA list. Heads of the administrative districts of Yerevan, directors of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) institutes, Ara Ketikyan, the vice-president of the Union of Yerkrapah Volunteers (UYV) who is presented as nonpartisan, and Konstantin Baklachyan, the manager of the pizzeria chain Mama Mia, are also on the RPA list. Mesrop Manukyan, an assistant to Manvel Grigoryan, a National Assembly member, is also included in the RPA list. Let us remind that one of the assistants to M. Grigoryan engaged in a fight with an assistant to Koryun Nahapetyan, also a member of the National Assembly, recently. It is also interesting that Gegham Grigoryan, the director of the Iravunk Media LLC, and Lilit Yeghiazaryan, a journalist of the same newspaper, are on the RPA list too. The list of the RLP is inferior to the above-mentioned parties both with the overall number of representatives and the number of people famous among the public. 105 people are included in the RLP list. Armen Yeritsyan, the Minister of Emergency Situations, Hovhannes Shahinyan, a member of the RLP executive committee, and Sofya Artenyan, a teacher of No. 185 School, are on the top of the list. Only members of the RLP are included in the list. There are many representatives of the European Regional Educational Academy and the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Armenia, where the RLP is dominant. The RLP list stands out for the fact that there are bloggers here too. The RLP hasn’t forgotten cosmetologists, kindergarten teachers, and mechanical engineers either.
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
