2018 Yerevan City Council election

Yerevan City Council elections were held on September 23, 2018.[1] The snap election was trigged after the resignation of former mayor Taron Margaryan amid the aftermath of the 2018 Armenian Velvet Revolution. Well-known comedian and actor Hayk Marutyan, heading the electoral list of the My Step alliance, was elected to the office of mayor of Yerevan.

2018 Yerevan City Council election
September 23, 2018 (2018-09-23)
All 65 seats to Yerevan City Council
33 seats needed for a majority
Turnout43.66%
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Hayk Marutyan Naira Zohrabyan Artak Zeynalyan
Party My Step Alliance Prosperous Armenia Bright Alliance
Last election Part of Way Out Alliance holding 14 seats New Part of Way Out Alliance holding 14 seats
Seats won 57 5 3
Popular vote 294,092 25,218 18,114
Percentage 81.06% 6.95% 4.99%
Mayor of Yerevan before election

Kamo Areyan (acting)
Republican Party

 Mayor of Yerevan

Hayk Marutyan
My Step Alliance

Candidates

979 candidates competed for 65 open seats on the city council (also called "council of elders").[2]

12 parties/alliances took part in the election (numbered below as on the electoral ballot):

Pre-election analysis of the top 10 lists from each party or alliance[10] revealed that:

  • only the Bright Alliance lists Yerevan city council members among its top 10 candidates. There are 7 of them, all are members of the current opposition Way Out alliance.
  • only the Prosperous Armenia party and "Yerevantsiner" Alliance list each one acting member of parliament
  • only the Bright Alliance lists an acting minister (Artak Zenalyan, Minister of Justice).

On average 12 top candidates have 2.8 children, with Raffi Hovhannisyan (Heritage) having the largest number, five, while only Naira Zohrabyan (Prosperous Armenia) has just one child.[11]

Most higher education accomplishments are listed for Artak Zeynalyan (Bright Alliance), though Raffi Hovhannisyan's list is most impressive one.[11]

Electoral code and voter data

According to official data there were 848,343 eligible voters.[12][13]

Foreign citizens living in Yerevan can cast their ballots in election if they have at least a one-year registration before voting day.[14]

Electoral code defines one vote per voter and a threshold of 6 percent of cast ballots for parties (50,900 votes at 100% turnout) and 8 percent for alliances (67,867 at 100% turnout), surpassing which is required for consideration during mandates allocation. Only if less than 3 parties/alliances pass the threshold all three best performing parties/alliances will be allocated mandates.[15][16] A “bonus” to the political force that wins at least 40 percent of the council seats will allow it to occupy majority of the seats and appoint the new mayor of Yerevan.[17]

Mandates will be allocated according to proportional representation principle, while regarding whole city area as one multi-mandate electoral district.

Election observation

Only one international organization (ICES) was registered for monitoring the elections.[13]

662 observers from 8 local organizations and 598 representatives of 49 media outlets will be participating. Ten of the representatives are from 5 foreign media outlets.[18]

Electoral fraud prevention and counteraction

Ahead of the September 23 election, in the second and final reading the Armenian Parliament unanimously ratified a bill criminalizing electoral fraud. The amendments to Armenia’s Criminal Code make electoral fraud punishable by imprisonment whereas before, individuals charged with vote buying or selling were simply fined.[10]

Police will establish a telephone Hot Line (010-54-41-22) that can be used to report electoral fraud on election day. Anonymity of those who report corruption cases will be guaranteed.[19]

Election campaign

Campaign was marked by bitter accusations by leading candidates.[20][21] Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said the elections will be between "bright" and "dark" forces.[22]

After some candidates called for public debates and expressed their participation willingness a debate was scheduled to be broadcast on public TV on last campaign day, September 21 at 22:25 - just 95 minutes before "silence day" begins. Debate will be recorded in advance, rather than broadcast live. For this reason one candidate, Naira Zohrabyan, representing Prosperous Armenia Party declined participation and called for a live debate,[23] while ten candidates confirmed their participation.[24] If broadcast shall indeed end before midnight, assuming equal speaking time distribution to candidates and taking into amount some time for moderation it can be expected that effective speaking time per candidate will amount to only about 7 (+-2) minutes.

Opinion polls

On September 11 Gallup International published an opinion poll survey.[25] According to the poll:[26]

  • 39.9% of the Yerevan residents will back My Step alliance mayoral candidate Hayk Marutyan
  • 11.8% will vote for Prosperous Armenia Party candidate Naira Zohrabyan
  • 4.2% of the respondents said they will vote for Bright Alliance candidate Artak Zeynalyan
  • 2.5% will back Zaruhi Postanjyan’s candidacy from Yerkir Tsirani party
  • 1.1% said they will vote for Orinats Yerkir (Country of Legality) party candidate Mher Shahgeldyan
  • 1.1% for Raffi Hovhanissian from Heritage
  • 0.8% said they will vote for Armenian Revolutionary Federation - Dashnaktsutyun candidate
  • 0.3% will vote for Yerevan community alliance
  • 0.2% will vote for Yerevantsiner alliance.

If these numbers hold only top 3 parties/alliances (My Step, Prosperous Armenia Party and Bright Alliance) will make into city council, as account shall be taken for cut-off thresholds and the rule of minimum of 3 parties/alliances representation.

Results

The My Step Alliance has won a landslide victory in the Yerevan City Council elections Sunday, according to preliminary data.[27]

Percentage of the vote of the My Step Alliance by districts of Yerevan.
 Summary of the 23 September 2018 Yerevan City Council election results
Party Votes % Seats
My Step Alliance 294,092 81.06 57
Prosperous Armenia 25,218 6.95 5
Bright Alliance 18,114 4.99 3
ARF 5,882 1.62 0
Yerkir Tsirani 5,059 1.39 0
Rule of Law 3,947 1.09 0
Yerevantsiner Alliance 2,986 0.82 0
Heritage 2,709 0.75 0
Yerevan Society Alliance 2,502 0.69 0
Democratic Way Party 799 0.22 0
Reformists Party 792 0.22 0
Hayk (Haykazuns) Party 682 0.19 0
Invalid votes 7,539 — —
Total 370,386 100.00 65
Electorate and turnout: 848,346 43.66 —
Source: Central Electoral Commission of Armenia

Well-known comedian and actor Hayk Marutyan, who heads the electoral list of the My Step alliance, will automatically become the next mayor of Yerevan because this political force has garnered more than 50 percent of mandates, and in this case, according to the law, the person who heads the electoral list of the given political force is considered mayor-elect. Hayk Marutyan is expected to assume office on October 10.[28] He is elected for the term of 4 years.

gollark: "Current target: Block #222 (shorthash 000000002e84, work 100000)", as I like to say.
gollark: Well, lyricly is currently somewhat insane.
gollark: Issues with what?
gollark: Maybe we should have some sort of emergency bot thing where people can vote to transfer administration to coltrans?
gollark: I think we may need to temporarily replace LyricLy.

References
  1. Yerevan to Elect New Municipal Council on September 23 hetq, 18 August 2018
  2. "Yerevan Elections in Numbers". www.civilnet.am. Retrieved 2018-09-20.
  3. Naira Zohrabyan is Prosperous Armenia Party’s candidate for Yerevan Mayor Armenpress, 2 August 2018
  4. Zaruhi Postanjyan: “I will run for mayor of Yerevan” Armenpress, 16 July 2018
  5. (in Armenian) «Ժառանգություն» կուսակցությունը կմասնակցի Երեւանի ավագանու ընտրություններին Lragir.am, 10 August 2018
  6. Civil Contract nominates Hayk Marutyan for Yerevan’s Mayor seat Aravot, 29 July 2018
  7. LLC, Helix Consulting. "Government - Team Members - The Government of the Republic of Armenia". www.gov.am. Retrieved 2018-09-19.
  8. Bright Armenia and Republic parties will participate in Yerevan elections without Civil Contract party NEWS.am, 17 August 2018
  9. ARF to have no female candidate at upcoming Yerevan municipal council election NEWS.am, 18 August 2018
  10. "Yerevan City Elections 2018: Everything You Need to Know". Retrieved 2018-09-19.
  11. Sputnik. "Кандидаты в мэры Еревана". ru.armeniasputnik.am (in Russian). Retrieved 2018-09-20.
  12. "Police publicize Yerevan city council election final electoral rolls". news.am. Retrieved 2018-09-20.
  13. "Հայաստանի Հանրապետության կենտրոնական ընտրական հանձնաժողով". Elections.am (in Armenian). Retrieved 2018-09-19.
  14. "Non-Armenia citizens also can vote in Yerevan city council election". news.am. Retrieved 2018-09-20.
  15. "DocumentView". www.arlis.am. Retrieved 2018-09-19.
  16. "Electoral Code of Armenia (adopted in 2016)" (PDF).
  17. "Armenia Police chief assures well-organized, transparent Yerevan city council election". news.am. Retrieved 2018-09-20.
  18. "662 observers and 598 reporters to follow Yerevan City Council elections - aravot.am".
  19. "Police Set-Up Hot Line for Yerevan Municipal Council Election - Hetq - News, Articles, Investigations". Retrieved 2018-09-20.
  20. "Yerevan Election Sparks Bitter Row Between Pashinian, Tsarukian Parties". «Ազատ Եվրոպա/Ազատություն» ռադիոկայան (in Armenian). Retrieved 2018-09-20.
  21. "Major Ally Rebukes, Warns Pashinian". «Ազատ Եվրոպա/Ազատություն» ռադիոկայան (in Armenian). Retrieved 2018-09-20.
  22. "Pashinyan: Yerevan mayor elections are elections of". news.am. Retrieved 2018-09-20.
  23. LLC, Helix Consulting. "Mayoral candidates to participate in Public TV's debate program - aysor.am - Hot news from Armenia". www.aysor.am. Retrieved 2018-09-20.
  24. LLC, Helix Consulting. "Mayoral candidates to participate in Public TV's debate program - aysor.am - Hot news from Armenia". www.aysor.am. Retrieved 2018-09-20.
  25. "Yerevan 12 Shades / Քաղաքապետի 12 երանգները". gallup.am. Retrieved 2018-09-19.
  26. "39.9% of Yerevan residents to back mayoral candidate Hayk Marutyan – polls - aysor.am - Hot news from Armenia". www.aysor.am. Retrieved 2018-09-19.
  27. "My Step bloc wins landslide victory in Yerevan City Council election". armenpress.am. Retrieved 2018-09-24.
  28. "Yerevan election vote tallying concluded, Hayk Marutyan to assume office as mayor on October 13". news.am. Retrieved 2018-09-24.
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