InternationalLevon Ter-Petrossian, Armenia’s first president, is now running for mayor
Published: Saturday March 21, 2009
Yerevan Mayor Gagik Beglarian and mayoral candidate Levon Ter-Petrossian, the former president. Photolure
Yerevan - Levon Ter-Petrossian, who was Armenia's first president and lost a bid to return to power last year, has now decided to head the Armenian National Congress's list of candidates for Yerevan City Council elections set for May 31. The first slot on each party list is reserved for the party's choice for mayor.
At a press conference on March 16, Levon Zurabian, the coordinator of the opposition Congress stated, "Yerevan's council elections will not be ordinary elections. This is going to be the second round of the Republic of Armenia's presidential elections. This is not going to be a struggle against various [party candidate] lists.... It is going to be a struggle toward establishing rule of law. We are struggling against a totalitarian, criminal, and oligarchic system. By placing the first president Levon Ter-Petrossian at the top of our united Armenian National Congress list, we want to tell everyone that we are starting the process of establishing democracy throughout Armenia, beginning from the capital city."
The participation of the former president in local elections signifies the intensification of Armenia's domestic political life.
The final party lists were to be submitted to the Central Electoral Commission by 6 P.M. on March 22. The candidate of the Republican Party of Armenia is Gagik Beglarian, who was appointed as mayor of Yerevan two weeks ago by President Serge Sargsian, who chairs the Republican party. The second name on that party list is the son of late Prime Minister Andranik Margarian, Taron Margarian, who has twice been elected as head of the Avan community in uncontested elections. He is understood to be quite popular in his district.
The Prosperous Armenia Party, which is headed by Gagik Tsarukian and is part of the ruling coalition nationally, was the first to announce its list. Leading the list is cardiologist Harutyun Kushkian, the minister of health and an entrepreneur in healthcare. Heghine Bisharian, the head of the Country of Laws Party's faction in the National Assembly, is heading the list for her party, which is also a member of the ruling coalition nationally. The Armenian Revolutionary Federation had not announced its party list as of press time.
It was widely expected that the Heritage Party, which is the only opposition party to have seats in the National Assembly, would join forces with Mr. Ter-Petrossian's Congress and offer a joint list. That did not happen, however, and the second slot in the Congress list is occupied by Stepan Demirchian, who was the runner up in the 2003 presidential election.
What about the Heritage Party, which was founded by Raffi Hovannisian? The party's press secretary Hovsep Khurshudian told the Armenian Reporter that after discussing the Congress's proposed joint list, the Heritage Party suggested a "competitive list." According to Mr. Khurshudian, the Congress considered that proposition unacceptable and turned it down. "In other words, generally speaking we can say that at this moment negotiations aimed at participating with a joint list have not been successful. I must say that Heritage has not yet decided how to participate in Yerevan's council elections, but the committee of the party will definitely come to a decision in the near future," he said.
During a conversation with journalists at the National Assembly, Anahit Bakhshian, who chairs the Heritage Party, explained the different versions considered during the party's negotiations with Mr. Ter-Petrossian's Congress. "The Armenian National Congress suggested Levon Ter-Petrossian to head the joint list, Stepan Demirjian in second place, and the representative of Heritage in third place. Apart from that, the Armenian National Congress suggested Heritage have eight places in the list, saying that there are many parties united in the Armenian National Congress. We discussed the matter and saw that that list cannot present our true potential and we suggested our version." The Heritage Party suggested that Armen Martirosian, the leader of Heritage's parliamentary faction, should top the list, followed by Levon Ter-Petrossian, then someone else from Heritage, and so on. Ms. Bakhshian believes that the list they proposed would have been more "competitive and victorious."
The new law
Under Armenia's Constitution adopted in 1995, the capital city was a province (marz) and the mayor was a provincial governor, appointed by the president. At the same time, Yerevan comprised 12 communities; the community heads and community councils were elected and were local self-governing bodies.
When the Constitution was amended in 2005, Yerevan received the status of a community, which means that the people of Yerevan will have the opportunity to elect the body that will govern the capital city as a whole. This body will have 65 members, who will elect one from their ranks as mayor.
The entire council will be elected from citywide party lists, meaning there will be no community-level representation. According to the law, "If one of the parties participating in the council elections receives more than 50 percent of the seats, the person topping that party's list becomes the mayor. If the person topping the party's election list does not meet the requirements, withdraws, or as a result of the elections none of the parties receives more than 50 percent of the seats, the mayor is elected by a secret ballot."
According to official data from the Central Electoral Commission, in the February 19, 2008, presidential elections, 523,102 valid ballots were cast in Yerevan. Serge Sargsian (Republican Party of Armenia) won 237,953 votes (45.4 percent), Levon Ter-Petrossian (self-nominated) won 152,971 votes (29.2 percent), Artur Baghdasarian (Country of Laws) won 69,031 votes (13.2 percent), and Vahan Hovhannesian (ARF) won 38,370 votes (7.3 percent).
