Yerevan City Council The Yerevan City Council () is the lawmaking body of the city of Yerevan, the capital and largest city of Armenia. It has 65 members elected by Party-list proportional representation system, headed by the Mayor of Yerevan. The Council serves as a ...

elections were held on 23 September 2018. The

snap election A snap election is an election that is called earlier than the one that has been scheduled. Generally, a snap election in a parliamentary system (the dissolution of parliament) is called to capitalize on an unusual electoral opportunity or to ...

was trigged after the resignation of former

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

Taron Margaryan Taron Andraniki Margaryan ( arm, Տարոն Անդրանիկի Մարգարյան, born 17 April 1978, Yerevan) is a politician from Armenia. He was the 11th mayor of Yerevan from 2011 to 2018. Head of community and early career From 2001 to 2 ...

amid the aftermath of the

2018 Armenian Velvet Revolution The 2018 Armenian Revolution, most commonly known in Armenia as #MerzhirSerzhin ( hy, ՄերժիրՍերժին, meaning "#RejectSerzh"), was a series of anti-government protests in Armenia from April to May 2018 staged by various political and ...

. Well-known comedian and actor

Hayk Marutyan Hayk Hrachyayi Marutyan ( hy, Հայկ Հրաչյայի Մարության; born December 18, 1976) is an Armenian actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer and politician. He was the mayor of Yerevan from October 2018 to December 2021. Marutyan ro ...

, heading the electoral list of the My Step Alliance, was elected to the office of mayor of

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Y ...

Candidates

979 candidates competed for 65 open seats in the Yerevan city council (also known as the "council of elders"). A total of 12 parties/alliances participated in the election (numbered below according to the electoral ballot listing): *1.

Prosperous Armenia Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP; hy, Բարգավաճ Հայաստան կուսակցություն, Bargavatch Hayastan kusaktsut’yun, abbreviated as ԲՀԿ BHK), is a conservative political party in Armenia. It was founded by businessman Gagi ...

, led by

Naira Zohrabyan Naira Zohrabyan (born 8 May 1965) is an Armenian politician who was a member of the National Assembly of Armenia for the Prosperous Armenia party. She stood for her party to become the Mayor of Yerevan at the 2018 Yerevan City Council election. ...

, member of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

and the vice-president of Prosperous Armenia. *2. Yerevan Society Alliance (also known as "Happy Society Alliance"), includes the

Green Party of Armenia The Green Party of Armenia ( hy, Հայաստանի Կանաչների կուսակցություն, translit=Hayastani Kanach’neri kusakts’ut’yun), also known as the Social-Ecological Party is a Green political party in Armenia. History ...

and the

Alliance of Ideological Liberals The Alliance of Ideological Liberals, also known as the GALA Party ( hy, Գաղափարախոսական լիբերալների դաշինք) is an Armenian political party. History The Alliance of Ideological Liberals was founded on 1 July 2016 i ...

(GALA party), led by Anahit Tarkhanyan, wife of 2013 presidential election candidate

Andrias Ghukasyan Andrias Marati Ghukasyan ( hy, Անդրիաս Մարատի Ղուկասյան) is an Armenian political analyst. Ghukasyan was one of seven candidates in the 2013 presidential election. Early life In 1987, he finished secondary school at N83. ...

. *3. Yerevantsiner Alliance ("People of Yerevan Alliance"), includes the Armenian National Movement Party and the "Armenian Homeland" party, led by Ararat Zurabyan, member of the National Assembly and the leader of the Armenian National Movement Party. *4. Yerkir Tsirani, led by

Zaruhi Postanjyan Zaruhi Postanjyan ( hy, Զարուհի Փոստանջյան; born January 16, 1972, Yerevan) is an Armenian Member of Parliament since 2007, a public activist and a member of Heritage board. She was the head of "Heritage" faction of National Asse ...

, member of the Yerevan City Council, and the leader of Yerkir Tsirani. *5, Heritage, led by

Raffi Hovannisian Raffi K. Richardi Hovannisian ( hy, Րաֆֆի Կ. Ռիչարդի Հովհաննիսյան; hyw, Րաֆֆի Կ. Ռիչարդի Յովհաննէսեան; born 20 November 1959) is an Armenian politician, the first Foreign Minister of Armenia and t ...

, the first Foreign Minister of Armenia, former member of the National Assembly and the leader of Heritage. *6.

Democratic Way Party The Democratic Way Party ( hy, Ժողովրդավարական ուղի կուսակցություն, translit=Zhoghovrdavarakan ughi kusakts’ut’yun), also known as the People's Way party, is a political party in Armenia. It is led by Manuel G ...

, led by Manuel Gasparyan, leader of the Democratic Way Party. *7.

My Step Alliance The My Step Alliance ( hy, Իմ Քայլը դաշինք, Im Kaylə Dashink', IKD) was a political alliance in Armenia formed by the Civil Contract party, the Mission Party and various independent representatives of civil society. It was formed i ...

, formed by Civil Contract and the

Mission Party The Mission Party ( hy, Առաքելություն կուսակցություն, translit=Arrak’elut’yun kusakts’ut’yun) was an Armenian political party founded on 2 February 2013. In August 2021, the party announced its decision to merge ...

, led by

, member of Civil Contract. *8.

Bright Alliance The Bright Alliance ( hy, «Լույս» դաշինք, ԼՈՒՅՍ; ''LUYS Dashink, LUYS'') was a liberal political alliance of two political parties in Armenia: the Bright Armenia party and Republic party. It was formed on 28 August 2018, before ...

, formed by

Bright Armenia Bright Armenia ( hy, Լուսավոր Հայաստան, translit=Lusavor Hayastan) is a classical liberal political party in Armenia founded on 12 December 2015. History In 2017, Bright Armenia launched an educational program aimed at advancing ...

(leader:

Edmon Marukyan Edmon Hrachiki Marukyan ( hy, Էդմոն Հրաչիկի Մարուքյան) is an Armenian lawyer and politician currently serving as ambassador-at-large of Armenia. He was a member of the National Assembly of Armenia from 2012 to 2021. He was el ...

, member of the National Assembly from

Way Out Alliance The Way Out Alliance ( hy, «Ելք» դաշինք, ԵԼՔ; ''YELK Dashink, YELQ'') or Yelk Alliance or simply Yelk or Way Out was a liberal political alliance of three political parties in Armenia: Civil Contract, Bright Armenia and the Hanrap ...

) and the

Hanrapetutyun Party The Hanrapetutyun Party ( hy, Հանրապետություն կուսակցություն, lit=Republic Party) is a pro-European political party in Armenia. The party was founded by ex-members from the Republican Party of Armenia and members of ...

(leader:

Aram Sargsyan Aram Zaveni Sargsyan ( hy, Արամ Զավենի Սարգսյան; 2 January 1961) is an Armenian political figure. He was Prime Minister of Armenia from 3 November 1999 to 2 May 2000. He is the younger brother of Vazgen Sargsyan. In 2001, he fou ...

, former prime minister, member of National Assembly from Way Out Alliance) nominates

Artak Zeynalyan Artak Haykazi Zeynalyan ( hy, Արտակ Հայկազի Զեյնալյան; born 9 September 1969) is an Armenian political figure, lawyer and former Minister of Justice. Biography Artak Zeynalyan was born on 9 September 1969 in Yerevan. He s ...

, current

Minister of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a v ...

and member of the Hanrapetutyun Party, former member of the National Assembly from the Way Out Alliance. *9.

Armenian Revolutionary Federation The Armenian Revolutionary Federation ( hy, Հայ Յեղափոխական Դաշնակցութիւն, ՀՅԴ ( classical spelling), abbr. ARF or ARF-D) also known as Dashnaktsutyun (collectively referred to as Dashnaks for short), is an Armenian ...

, led by Mikayel Manukyan, former member of the National Assembly and current director of the forests committee of the Ministry of Nature Protection, member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. *10. Hayk Party, led by Gevorg Hovsepyan, leader of the Nzhdehian Tseghakron Party. *11. Reformist Party, led by Artak Avetyan. *12. Rule of Law, led by Mher Shahgeldyan, former member of the National Assembly and member of the Rule of Law party. A pre-election analysis of the top 10 lists from each party or alliance revealed that: * Only

lists Yerevan city council members among its top 10 candidates. There are 7 of them, all are members of the current opposition

. * Only

and the "Yerevantsiner Alliance" each list one acting member of parliament. * Only

lists an acting minister (Artak Zenalyan, Minister of Justice).

Electoral code and voter data

According to official data there were 848,343 eligible voters. Foreign citizens living in Yerevan could cast their ballots if they had at least a one-year registration before voting day. The electoral code defines one vote per voter and a threshold of 6 percent of cast ballots for parties (50,900 votes at 100% turnout) and 8 percent for alliances (67,867 at 100% turnout), surpassing which is required for consideration during mandate allocations. Only if less than 3 parties/alliances pass the threshold, would all three best performing parties/alliances be allocated mandates. A “bonus” to the political force that wins at least 40 percent of the council seats will allow it to occupy majority of the seats and appoint the new mayor of Yerevan. Mandates will be allocated according to

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

principle, while regarding Yerevan as one multi-mandate electoral district.

Election observation

Only one international organization, the International Expert Center for Electoral Systems (ICES) was registered for monitoring the election. While 662 observers from 8 local organizations and 598 representatives of 49 media outlets participated. Ten of the representatives were from 5 foreign media outlets.

Electoral fraud prevention and counteraction

Ahead of the September 23 election, in the second and final reading, the Armenian Parliament unanimously ratified a bill criminalizing

electoral fraud Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share of ...

. The amendments to Armenia’s Criminal Code make electoral fraud punishable by imprisonment whereas before, individuals charged with vote buying or selling were simply fined. Police established a telephone hot line which was used to report electoral fraud on election day. Anonymity of those who report corruption cases will be guaranteed.

Election campaign

The campaign was marked by bitter accusations by leading candidates. Prime Minister of Armenia,

Nikol Pashinyan Nikol Vovayi Pashinyan ( hy, Նիկոլ Վովայի Փաշինյան, ; born 1 June 1975) is an Armenian politician serving as the prime minister of Armenia since 8 May 2018. A journalist by profession, Pashinyan founded his own newspaper in 1 ...

, said the elections will be between "bright" and "dark" forces. After some candidates called for public debates and expressed their participation willingness, a debate was scheduled to be broadcast on public TV on the last campaign day, September 21 at 22:25 - just 95 minutes before "silence day" begins. The debate was recorded in advance, rather than broadcast live. For this reason, only one candidate, Naira Zohrabyan, representing Prosperous Armenia had declined participation and called for a live debate, while ten candidates confirmed their participation. If broadcast shall indeed end before midnight, assuming equal speaking time distribution to the candidates and taking into amount some time for moderation, it was expected that speaking time per candidate would amount to only about 7 (+-2) minutes.

Opinion polls

On September 11,

Gallup International The Gallup International Association (GIA) is an association of opinion poll, polling organizations registered in Zurich, Switzerland. The Gallup International Association was founded in 1947 in Loxwood Hall, Sussex, UK. Dr. George Gallup, George ...

published an opinion poll survey. According to the poll: * 39.9% of the Yerevan residents will back My Step Alliance mayoral candidate Hayk Marutyan * 11.8% will vote for Prosperous Armenia candidate Naira Zohrabyan * 4.2% of the respondents said they will vote for Bright Alliance candidate Artak Zeynalyan * 2.5% will back Zaruhi Postanjyan’s candidacy from Yerkir Tsirani * 1.1% said they will vote for Orinats Yerkir (Rule of Law) candidate Mher Shahgeldyan * 1.1% for Raffi Hovhanissian from Heritage * 0.8% said they will vote for the Armenian Revolutionary Federation's candidate * 0.3% will vote for the Yerevan Society alliance * 0.2% will vote for the Yerevantsiner alliance If these numbers held, only the top 3 parties/alliances (My Step, Prosperous Armenia, and Bright Alliance) would make it into city council, according to the rule of passing the electoral threshold and requiring a minimum of 3 parties/alliances to be represented in council.

Results

The

won a landslide victory in the Yerevan City Council elections, according to preliminary data. 2018 Yerevan election My Step vote

, -style="background:#E9E9E9;" , colspan=2 style="text-align:center;" , Party , style="text-align:center;" , Votes , style="text-align:center;" , % , style="text-align:center;" , Seats , - , , style="text-align:center;" , 294,092 , style="text-align:center;" , 81.06 , style="text-align:center;" , 57 , - , , style="text-align:center;" , 25,218 , style="text-align:center;" , 6.95 , style="text-align:center;" , 5 , - , , style="text-align:center;" , 18,114 , style="text-align:center;" , 4.99 , style="text-align:center;" , 3 , - , , style="text-align:center;" , 5,882 , style="text-align:center;" , 1.62 , style="text-align:center;" , 0 , - , style="background-color:#731B34", , style="text-align:left;" , Yerkir Tsirani , style="text-align:center;" , 5,059 , style="text-align:center;" , 1.39 , style="text-align:center;" , 0 , - , style="background-color:#EC7501", , style="text-align:left;" ,

Rule of Law The rule of law is the political philosophy that all citizens and institutions within a country, state, or community are accountable to the same laws, including lawmakers and leaders. The rule of law is defined in the ''Encyclopedia Britannica ...

, style="text-align:center;" , 3,947 , style="text-align:center;" , 1.09 , style="text-align:center;" , 0 , - , style="background-color:#FFC601", , style="text-align:left;" , Yerevantsiner Alliance , style="text-align:center;" , 2,986 , style="text-align:center;" , 0.82 , style="text-align:center;" , 0 , - , style="background-color:#0A628C", , align=left,

Heritage Heritage may refer to: History and society * A heritage asset is a preexisting thing of value today ** Cultural heritage is created by humans ** Natural heritage is not * Heritage language Biology * Heredity, biological inheritance of physical c ...

, style="text-align:center;" , 2,709 , style="text-align:center;" , 0.75 , style="text-align:center;" , 0 , - , style="background-color:#D3D3D3", , style="text-align:left;" , Yerevan Society Alliance , style="text-align:center;" , 2,502 , style="text-align:center;" , 0.69 , style="text-align:center;" , 0 , - , style="background-color:, , style="text-align:left;" ,

, style="text-align:center;" , 799 , style="text-align:center;" , 0.22 , style="text-align:center;" , 0 , - , style="background-color:#D3D3D3", , style="text-align:left;" , Reformist Party , style="text-align:center;" , 792 , style="text-align:center;" , 0.22 , style="text-align:center;" , 0 , - , style="background-color:#D3D3D3", , style="text-align:left;" , Hayk (Haykazuns) Party , style="text-align:center;" , 682 , style="text-align:center;" , 0.19 , style="text-align:center;" , 0 , - , - , colspan=2 , Invalid votes , style="text-align:center;" , 7,539 , style="text-align:center;" , — , style="text-align:center;" , — , - ! colspan=2 , Total , style="text-align:center;" , 370,386 , style="text-align:center;" , 100.00 , style="text-align:center;" , 65 , - ! colspan=2 , Electorate and turnout: , style="text-align:center;" , 848,346 , style="text-align:center;" , 43.66 , style="text-align:center;" , — , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan=5 , Source
Central Electoral Commission of Armenia
Well-known comedian and actor

, who heads the electoral list of the My Step Alliance, became the next mayor of Yerevan as the My Step Alliance garnered more than 50 percent of mandates, and according to law, the person who heads the electoral list of the winning political force is considered mayor-elect. Hayk Marutyan assumed office on 10 October 2018. He is elected for a term of 4 years.

References

{{Portal bar, Politics

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

Yerevan 2018 in Armenia City council elections September 2018 events in Europe 2018 elections in Europe 21st century in Yerevan