Will Hayk Marutyan Attend Today's Council Meeting? Decisions of Opposition Factions Regarding the Budget

The "Zhoghovurd" daily reports that today's Yerevan City Council meeting is significant. On the agenda, among other issues, is the draft budget for 2024 and the five-year community development program, which must be approved by the City Council; otherwise, the issue of the mayor's resignation may arise.

The RA law on "Local Self-Government" stipulates that if the community budget is not approved, the community leader can submit a resignation to terminate their powers prematurely. If the City Council does not make a decision on the resignation of the community leader within three days after receiving the application from the community leader, then the community budget is deemed approved with the corrections made by the community leader.

Concerning the approval of the community budget, if the City Council decides to terminate the community leader's powers through resignation, the community leader must present the issue to the government according to the procedure established by law.

The "Zhoghovurd" daily learned from the opposition "National Progress" and "Mother Armenia" factions that they will decide today during the council meeting about their participation in this significant meeting. The opposition factions initially intend to make a collective decision regarding their attendance in hopes of making their boycott effective.

Additionally, sources from "Public Voice" indicated that today they will show their stance, emphasizing that none of them has discussed the boycott with others. The situation is such that if the opposition does not attend as a whole, there will be no quorum, and the meeting will be disrupted. However, if even one opposition member attends, there will be a quorum, and the community budget and development program will be approved.

Thus, the "Civil Contract" party and its coalition partner "Republic" have a total of 33 mandates, while the three opposition factions have 34. However, at the same time, two members of the "Public Voice" faction, Artak Galstyan and Tigran Urikhanyan, cannot attend the meeting as Galstyan is in custody, and Urikhanyan is wanted.

In this context, the CC and "Republic" hold the majority in the council. Therefore, if a quorum is established, they can approve all proposals, including the budget and development program.

Today's agenda will also include a draft on changes to local taxes and fees, which will raise the cost of "red line" parking in the city center from 12,000 drams to 160,000 drams.

"Mother Armenia" has announced that they will hold a protest in front of the city hall against the price increase project before the start of the council meeting.

The "Zhoghovurd" daily has also learned that Hayk Marutyan may participate in the meeting today, as he has not resigned his mandate but has not attended any meetings since the newly formed council commenced its activities.