The CPP Minority Government Must Step Down: Hayk Marutyan

The Public Voice party has supported the CPP. The only thing that needs to be clarified in this regard is what Public Voice wanted and what it received from the CPP in exchange for its support. This was stated by Hayk Marutyan on his Facebook page.

“Dear Yerevanians, dear compatriots,
As we saw, there was no surprise regarding the Yerevan mayoral election. It happened as we had predicted a few days ago. I want to remind our dear fellow citizens that as a result of the September 17 election, the CPP received a minority in the council with 24 votes, therefore the opposition had a real chance to reject the CPP if at least 33 council members had voted for the opposition's candidate.

All opposition parties could have boycotted today’s council meeting, thereby preventing the CPP from being re-elected in Yerevan. However, the ‘Republic’ party showed that it is not actually an opposition and chose the CPP candidate. In other words, let’s record that the voters who voted for the 'Republic' party have chosen the CPP.

Regarding the 'Public Voice', this party tried to sell its votes to the opposition in exchange for some positions. We declared back then that this offer is illegal—administrative chiefs are elected through a competitive process and cannot be the subject of political agreements. It later also became clear that Public Voice does not have enough votes at all, because one of their list members is in prison, and another is abroad. These individuals could have, of course, renounced their mandates and made way for others, but for some reason, they did not do so. Therefore, if 'Public Voice' was truly against the CPP, they only needed to boycott today’s meeting and exclude the election of the CPP candidate. But that did not happen.

Thus, let us also state that the 'Public Voice' party supported the CPP. The only thing that needs to be clarified in this context is what Public Voice wanted and what it received from the CPP in exchange for its support.

In any case, under these conditions, the CPP candidate became the mayor with the minority of votes given by the Yerevanians, as well as the votes of the council members.

We want to emphasize that during this time, we have not retreated even one step from our stated principles—we have not formed a coalition with either the CPP or representatives of the former regime, nor have we made a deal with a force that is in serious conflict with morality and legality. I want to thank the Yerevanians who chose us on September 17. We will remain true to our promise to you. We will continue our work in the council from those positions for the benefit of our city and our country. We wish ourselves a good journey. And the CPP—the minority government must step down.”