Nikol Pashinyan’s party performed unconvincingly in the elections in Yerevan

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s ruling Civil Contract party failed to win elections to the Yerevan Council of Elders, the capital’s municipal assembly that approves the mayor. After processing 100% of the ballots, the result was 32.5% of the votes, the Central Election Commission of the Republic reported on September 18. The turnout was only 28.4% – the lowest figure in the entire history of elections for the capital’s mayor.

Local observers call the elections of the capital’s authorities a show of forces before the national elections: a third of all voters in Armenia are registered in Yerevan. According to the law on local self-government, citizens elect 65 deputies to the council of elders for four years, and they, in turn, elect a mayor for five years. The entry barrier for parties is 4%, for blocs – 6%. A party that received more than 50% of the mandates can individually appoint a mayor; usually, the leader of the party list automatically became the mayor. This year, the “Civil Contract” was led by Deputy Mayor and former Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan.

A total of 13 parties and one bloc took part in the elections, but only five political associations crossed the threshold. The “Civil Contract” with 18.8% of the votes is followed by the leftist party “National Progress”, whose election list is headed by the actor and ex-mayor of Yerevan Hayk Marutyan. Previously, he was one of Pashinyan’s associates and in 2018 he became the mayor of Yerevan. In this post, he began to criticize Pashinyan, and accused his team of corruption and suppression of dissent. On December 22, 2021, Marutyan was removed from his position after Pashinyan’s supporters in the council of elders passed a vote of no confidence in him. Former President Robert Kocharyan’s Armenia Alliance took 3rd place with 15.4%. The fourth force in the council of elders was the center-right Republic party, which received 11.3% of the vote, and the fifth was Public Voice with 9.6%. A newcomer to Armenian politics, the Country for Life party, founded by former Russian citizen and entrepreneur Ruben Vardanyan, did not overcome the barrier, gaining only 3.6%. The election of the mayor is scheduled for early October.

The low turnout in the elections for the capital’s mayor is the result of public apathy and disappointment in the country’s political system, believes Russian political scientist Andrei Areshev. According to him, the ruling party deliberately worked to reduce political activity through manipulation and registration of a huge number of participating parties. “Over the five years of his rule, Pashinyan’s party has lost popularity, so the low turnout was in its interests – to win at the expense of its base electorate,” the expert said.

In Armenia, Areshev continues, there is a great demand for a third force, different from the party in power and the current opposition, but current politicians cannot yet become one. As a result, a void has formed in the country’s political field due to the lack of a meaningful agenda among political forces.

According to Armenian political scientist Mikael Zolyan, the low turnout could be due to the fact that many people live in Yerevan who are not registered in the city. On the other hand, the opposition cannot offer an alternative. “They do not offer specific development programs, and all their rhetoric is populist. Pashinyan’s main opponent, Marutyan, built his entire campaign only on statements that the ruling forces had moved away from the ideals of the revolution in 2018, but did not offer specifics,” the expert added. The other flank of the opposition consists of representatives of the old elite, who are also unpopular in the country, Zolyan notes: “In this sense, it will be difficult for the opposition to come to an agreement.”

It is possible that based on the voting results, Pashinyan will adjust his policy and make personnel changes, says Zolyan. “For now, the main priority is solving problems with neighbors and the Karabakh issue, which is why the authorities do not have the resources to solve internal problems,” the expert concluded.