Will Pashinyan Suspend Avinyan’s ‘Independence’?

The newspaper ‘Pats’ reports: ‘Despite the fact that there are still about three months until the Yerevan council elections, and officially the campaign has not yet started, several candidates are already carrying out intensive campaigning. Moreover, there are reports that PR groups and campaign headquarters have started renting spaces. Additionally, it became clear the other day who the head of the ruling Civil Contract party's headquarters will be. It concerns the Minister of Emergency Situations, Armen Pambukhchyan.

This is noteworthy because the candidate for mayor from the Civil Contract party, Tigran Avinyan, has been doing everything during this time to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the deputy mayor for the campaign while simultaneously maintaining a certain ‘distance’ from his party. However, it seems that Nikol Pashinyan has decided to suspend this ‘independence’ and has appointed one of his most loyal ‘associates’ as the head of the campaign headquarters.

Interestingly, it turns out that Armen Pambukhchyan and one of the main candidates for Yerevan mayor, Mane Tandilyan, have already crossed paths in the electoral field once. Specifically, in the parliamentary elections of 2018, they ran in the same electoral district: Kentron, Erebuni, Nork-Marash, and Nubarashen administrative areas. At that time, Pambukhchyan received 1,666 votes, while Tandilyan garnered 3,636 votes.

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