Elections to the local authorities will be held in Gyumri and Vanadzor this autumn. These will be the first elections in the framework of the new Electoral Code, implying the holding of elections under a proportional system only. For the first time, mayoral elections will be held on a mediated model – the mayor will choose the members of the community council. They will be representatives of the political force that will take the majority of seats in the city council. Previously, mayors were elected by direct vote.
Observers have placed particular importance on the elections in the second largest city of Armenia, Gyumri, which received the glory of an opposition city. Here, even according to the official figures, at the end of the previous parliamentary elections in 2012 the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) gave way to the party ‘Prosperous Armenia’ (PAP). And during the 2013 presidential election, the RPA’s leader, the incumbent president Serzh Sargsyan, lost to the candidate of the opposition party ’Heritage’, Raffi Hovhannisyan. In addition, Gyumri residents voted against the constitutional changes in the referendum on December 6th 2015.
The attention of experts and the press on the elections in Gyumri is also due to the possibility of creating a single bloc of opposition forces. The author of the idea and initiator of the negotiations on the establishment of such a unit was the recently formed party ‘Alliance of Ideological Liberals’ (GALA), founded by several journalists of the Gyumri TV company ‘GALA’, uncontrolled by the authorities. Representatives of the ‘Alliance of Ideological Liberals’ (AIL) offer the opposition parties ‘Civil Agreement’, ‘Light of Armenia’, ‘Armenian National Congress’ and PAP to run in the municipal elections as one bloc, headed by the AIL’s leader, Vahan Khachatryan. The latter is also the owner and manager of the GALA company. It is too early to talk about the outcome of these negotiations, especially since some of the parties, such as PAP, firmly intend to participate in the elections with their own party lists. Nevertheless, some experts say the idea of joining the opposition parties into the newly formed AIL is a promising one. Firstly, it is a question of the resources of the opposition in general.
Secondly, the TV company ‘GALA’, which has been fighting for the holding of the democratic and fair elections for years, is very popular in the city, therefore, the proposed candidate, Vahan Khachatryan, will become a passing figure. In addition, the mayor will be chosen not on the basis of the national picture, but based on the local circumstances, including the issues such as high unemployment and migration rates, homelessness of many citizens.In a small town with a population of 120 thousand, whose residents are watching the programs of GALA TV company, this will work in a favor of the opposition candidate.Of course, the government has the disproportionately large resources, but given that the overall power rating is low, the opposition has some chances.The opposition once again will have to come to grips with the RPA, having huge resources, the proportional list of which will be headed by a non-party, incumbent Mayor of Gyumri, Samvel Balasanyan. It is interesting that such a powerful force as the Republican Party will participate in the elections in alliance with dwarf 'signboard parties ", the Christian Democratic Party of Armenia and ‘Constitutional Right Union’.
Some experts believe that the fall elections will be a rehearsal before the 2017 national elections. However, they have different processes. The national elections will be held under totally different slogans and different logic, involving the formation of the electoral alliances, not on the basis of a given local context, but on the basis of the political considerations. The elections to the local self-government can not be extrapolated to the parliamentary elections, because at the national level at least the opposition has no such a powerful information resource as GALA in Gyumri. But on the other hand, the local elections will be an important indicator of the current situation in the political field of the country, as well as the important test of strength and opportunities. Events in these elections may provide answers to the questions about how strong the power is or how much the opposition is able to mobilize its resources.
