No Power Seizure in Sisian: New Elections to Take Place

The newspaper "Pats" reports that new council elections will be held in the community of Sisian, Syunik Province, on March 26. The ruling Civil Contract party was unable to seize power thanks to the principled stance of opposition forces.

It is worth recalling that in the local self-government elections held on September 25, none of the five political forces that surpassed the electoral threshold managed to obtain more than 50 percent of the votes. The distribution of the 21 mandates in Sisian was as follows: the Civil Contract received 8, Work and Justice 5, Living Country 4, and both One Armenia and the Alliance for the Defense of Democracy received 2 mandates each.

On October 12, in the first session of the newly elected council, the community leader was elected as Armen Hakobjan from the Civil Contract party, who managed to secure just 9 votes, as the ruling faction elected their candidate as mayor. Ara Zakaryan, the candidate for community leader from the Living Country faction, stated that it is unacceptable to elect a mayor in such a manner, and the faction was the first to resign from their mandates.

The extraordinary sessions of the council scheduled for October 15 and 18, aimed at holding the mayor's oath-taking ceremony, did not take place due to a lack of quorum, and Armen Hakobjan did not assume his powers as community leader.

Eventually, other opposition forces followed the principled example of the Living Country party and also refused their mandates. The Civil Contract and Alliance for the Defense of Democracy parties were unable to secure quorum, leading the “mayor” to resign. In fact, it was not possible to carry out a power seizure in Sisian thanks to the efforts of the Living Country party, and other forces recognized that the ruling party wanted to draw them into a dirty and fruitless game. A new and vigorous struggle is expected on March 26.

For more details, see the newspaper's current issue.