Board meeting of “Civil Contract” party was invited in days. At the presence of the President of the Party, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, the issue of the mayoral candidate for Yerevan City Council elections was discussed. At the end of the session, the mayoral candidate of “Civil Contract” party was elected upon votes. Alen Simonyan, who was one of the candidates, said that the election had taken place with two phases. The “fight” was between two candidates passed to the second round, Alen Simonyan and Hayk Marutyan. Hayk Marutyan received more votes, nevertheless. According to Alen Simonyan, two invalid ballots of the first phase were added to the number of votes that Hayk Marutyan received in the second phase. Alen Simonyan called on all people who had supported him to join him and defend Hayk Marutyan’s candidacy. He also said that performing at “Yelq’s” format had not been discussed.
Asked what plan he was going to present, Hayk Marutyan, mayoral candidate of “Civil Contract” party answered that the plan coincided with the party’s plan: “There are some emphases which I have underlined, we will present them to the public soon. We will also present the whole plan and start the discussions.”
Hayk Marutyan said that acting had constituted only 20% of his activity since 2012, his main job had been directing and organizing: “Everyone knows and has seen the [my] political and social activity. They can even estimate that activity.”
Asked how the mayor should be, Hayk Marutyan replied – he should not be an official, he should be one of you, one of us: “If we win these elections, I will be one of you. And we will look at our city from that angle, we will bring our city to the state all of us want.”
To the question what Yerevan should look like and what primary issues were in place, Hayk Marutyan replied – we should make Yerevan the subject of our pride. As Hayk Marutyan said, “I must solve Yerevan’s issues together with my fellow Yerevan residents “with rolled-up sleeves”.
On what he had noticed during the term of office of Yerevan City Mayor from the Republican Party of Armenia, Taron Margaryan, that he was going to change on the first place, Hayk Marutyan responded that one should not look back, one should look ahead: “We must not repeat the mistakes of the past, yes, we should look ahead and take our fellow Yerevan residents forward.”
Asked what mayor Hayk Marutyan would be, “Civil Contract” party member Zaruhi Batoyan, who was also nominated as a mayoral candidate, answered that they should work with a team for the plans to be strong and Hayk Marutyan should embody the mayoral candidate no one was still familiar with.
Lusine BUDAGHYAN
