I'm Not Nostradamus: Vardan Ghukasyan

“I’m not Nostradamus.” This was stated by Vardan Ghukasyan regarding the possibility of his election as mayor.

It should be noted that Vardan Ghukasyan, a candidate for the mayor of Gyumri, recently arrived at the Gyumri city hall accompanied by his supporters. A few moments later, the inaugural session of the newly elected council will begin, during which the mayor will be elected.

To the question of whether he thinks he will be elected mayor today, Ghukasyan replied, “I’m not Nostradamus. Wait, there are 15-20 minutes left. I have built it for 13 years, and I am entering this magnificent building for the first time, which is considered a building of the century. It is one of the top ten buildings in Armenia in the last 100 years. I have seen the city hall of Thessaloniki, and I was filled with good envy; I said we will also make it in Gyumri. I haven’t set foot here for 13 years. The Yerevan city hall bows before Gyumri.”

It is worth noting that according to the results of the snap elections held on March 30, the 33 council mandates were distributed as follows:

• Harutyun Minasyan (My Step Alliance) - 14 mandates
• Vardan Ghukasyan (Communist Party) - 8 mandates
• Martun Grigoryan (“Our City” alliance) - 6 mandates
• Ruben Mkrtchyan (My Strong Community) - 3 mandates
• Karen Simonyan (“Mother Armenia” alliance) - 2 mandates

The four opposition forces have announced that they will support Vardan Ghukasyan in his bid for mayor. While Karen Simonyan and Ruben Mkrtchyan announced from the start that they would support Ghukasyan, Martun Grigoryan issued a statement after a long silence, saying he would give the necessary votes to Ghukasyan but would not take responsibility for future activities. Earlier, before the elections, he had stated that the My Step Alliance wants to take over the city through Vardan Ghukasyan.

Numerous reports in the media indicate that it is possible that the My Step Alliance will apply the Vanadzor precedent in Gyumri, where the most likely candidate for mayor, Mamikon Aslanyan, was detained after the elections, and a candidate favorable to the authorities was appointed as acting mayor.