“No One Was Forced to Vote for Me”: Avinyan

“The mood is very good and there is great hope that the citizens of Yerevan have truly expressed their opinion in this election and have given their vote of confidence to us,” said Tigran Avinyan, the candidate for mayor of Yerevan from the Civil Contract party, during a brief press conversation regarding his expectations from the elections.

Commenting on the passiveness of the elections, Avinyan stated that the real picture of the Yerevan elections should be just that. According to him, the results of this election should not be compared to those of 2017, during which enormous administrative resources were used, nor to those of 2018, which were marked by a great spirit of revolution. “I believe normal, regular elections took place, and I think this will be the standard for our municipal elections in the future.”

Tigran Avinyan ruled out the possibility of using administrative resources. “No one was forced to vote for me. Only in Yerevan, if we had used administrative resources, if we had activated the state apparatus, all the bodies under the government, committees, the municipal hall, I assure you, we would have had approximately 40% participation.”