ArmInfo. Local government elections held on October 2 fundamentally differed from previous elections, as there was real political competition, Spokesman of ARF Dashnaktsutyun Aghvan Vardanyan told journalists on October 4.
At the same time according to him the riggings and violations registered during the elections were not numerous. The member of Dashnaktsutyun positively assessed the voting process adding that ARFD is not satisfied with the election results in Gyumri and Vanadzor. "We had quite different expectations, we expected to win at least 10% of votes in Gyumri as we have actively worked there and a rather authoritative party list was presented", he noted. However, Vardanyan stated that not everything was ideal during the local elections, as criminal kingpins also were involved in the process. He urged not to link the results of the local elections with the upcoming parliamentary elections in 2017. Vardanyan also refuted the information that ARFD has given bribes in Kapan.
To note, by the preliminary data, candidates from the RPA obtained the biggest number of votes in both Gyumri and Vanadzor. In Gyumri, the incumbent mayor Samvel Balasanyan received 34.64% of votes. The candidates nominated by the following political forces rank next: Prosperous Armenia - 21.7%, Armenian Rebirth - 10.62%, GALA - 10.49%, Solidarity - 5.77%, Spirit of Gyumri - 5.74%, ARF Dashnaktsutyun - 5.36%. In Vanadzor, the RPA obtained 37.55% of votes, Prosperous Armenia - 27.54%, Armenian Rebirth - 13.27%, ARFD - 6.37%, while Solidarity, Armenian National Congress and Civil Contract failed to cross the 5% threshold.