The Tigran Avinyan Plan is Failing: Iravunk

The newspaper Iravunk reports: "There is no final answer yet on whether early elections for the Yerevan city council will take place this autumn. However, Yerevan already has three candidates for mayor. The ruling Civil Contract party officially announced that their candidate for mayor is former Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan.

Following this, Natalia Rotenberg, the wife of the president of the 'Force of the Fatherland' party, Tigran Arzakantsyan, declared her intention to run for the upcoming elections. Recently, a new political party was established by former military police officer Vardan Ghukasian, known as Dog, who is also intending to participate in the mayoral elections. If successful, he will be the mayoral candidate for their new party, 'Public Voice'; if not, they will propose the candidacy of human rights defender Artak Galstyan.

It remains unclear which political forces are preparing to enter the electoral race. However, according to sources from Iravunk, the authorities are also unsure if this is the right time to hold early elections, despite having reassured Tigran Avinyan on the matter.

The issue lies in the fact that, although administrative districts and the city council are filled with Avinyan's appointees, this is not sufficient to secure the mayoral seat for Tigran Avinyan. A study conducted by the members of the ruling party has shown that not everyone within their own team is willing to 'put their neck on the line' for him. Therefore, there is concern among the upper echelons of the Civil Contract party that the 'Tigran Avinyan' plan is failing, and they will try in every possible way to ensure the participation of pocket forces in the elections scheduled for this or the next year, in order to prevent the capital from unexpectedly falling into the hands of real opposition parties."

For more details, refer to today's issue of the newspaper.