"My step" disrupts regular meeting of Council of Elders of Yerevan

ArmInfo.The next meeting of the Council of Elders of Yerevan, scheduled for December 21, did not take place due to the lack of a quorum. The "My Step" faction of  the ruling bloc boycotted the next meeting.

"In fact, we do not have a quorum, therefore I declare the meeting  invalid and closed," Mayor Hayk Marutyan noted.

On December 20, the "My Step" faction of the bloc issued a statement  in which it announced its intention to boycott the meeting of the  Council of Elders. The agenda of today's meeting included 38 issues.

On December 22 a meeting of the Council of Elders of Yerevan will  take place, the agenda of which includes a draft decision "On  expressing no confidence in Yerevan Mayor Hayk Marutyan".

It is noteworthy that member of the Council of Elders of Yerevan from  the "My Step" faction, Nvard Vardanyan, said yesterday in an  interview with one of the Armenian media that the issue of the  resignation of the capital's mayor had matured long ago.

She recalled that the budget of Yerevan was made up of 70% of  government subsidies and the development of the city depends on these  subsidies, since the city is not able to meet its needs 100%.  According to her, given that there were strained relations between  the city authorities (in the person of Hayk Marutyan, who left the  ranks of the Civil Contract - ed. note), and the country's  authorities, this affected the further development of Yerevan.  Vardanyan stressed that the relationship between the city authorities  and the government has reached the peak of the crisis, and must  somehow be resolved.

In fact, a representative of the ruling force reported that the RA  government delayed  the financing of the city, due to the conflict  between Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and  Yerevan Mayor Hayk Marutyan.

As ArmInfo previously reported, the f"My Step" action of the Council  of Elders of the ruling party began the process of expressing no  confidence in  Yerevan mayor  Hayk Marutyan. According to a member of  the faction Armen Kotolyan, 39 of the required 33 signatures have  already been collected. At the same time, Kotolyan refused to talk  about the reasons for this decision of the authorities, noting that  the faction will provide the public with the reasons for this  decision. However, he did not rule out that such a decision was  politically motivated.

According to the Law on Local Self-Government of Yerevan, after the  submission of a vote of no confidence to the mayor, a meeting of the  Council of Elders is convened on the third working day, at which the  issue of a vote of no confidence is brought up and the new mayor is  elected by secret ballot.

Earlier, the "Haykakan Zhamanak" newspaper, owned by the family of  Prime Minister Pashinyan, published an unconfirmed article about  Marutyan's alleged meeting with  second president of Armenia, Robert  Kocharian, the de facto leader of the opposition "Armenia" bloc. The  bloc denied this information, but it became clear that this "fake  news" was the result of a "black cat" that ran between Pashinyan and  Marutyan.

44-year-old Marutyan, who was one of the key figures in the Velvet  Revolution, was elected mayor in 2018. His term of office expires in  2023. He turned out to be a good business executive and his actions  are mainly supported by the residents of the capital. However,  Marutyan, unlike the parliamentary elections of 2018, did not openly  support Pashinyan in the early elections in June this year.