Tigran Avinyan to be candidate for Yerevan mayor from Civil Contract  party

ArmInfo. In the forthcoming elections to the Council of Elders in Yerevan, the list of the "Civil Contract" party will be headed by former Deputy Premier Tigran  Avinyan, who will also be a candidate for the post of mayor of  Yerevan.  

Vahagn Aleksanyan, coordinator for public relations of the  party, informed RFE/RL's Armenian Service about the decision of the  board of the "Civil Contract" party, headed by RA Prime Minister  Nikol Pashinyan. "Mayor Hrachya Sargsyan said that there were  discussions with Tigran Avinyan, but there is no final agreement. If  agreed, Avinyan will be appointed Deputy Mayor of Yerevan, and then  head the election list," Aleksanyan said.

At the same time, Aleksanyan noted that "it is very important to  distinguish between the fact that now our mayor is Hrachya Sargsyan  and the Civil Contract party supports him in this matter with the  whole team." "There is a decision on Mr. Avinyan that he should soon  become the vice-mayor of Yerevan. "... Tigran Avinyan will head our  electoral list in the next elections," the representative of the  Civil Contract party said.  Elections to the Council of Elders of  Yerevan will be held in 2023. The current mayor of the capital,  Hrachya Sargsyan, officially took office on December 25, 2021. On  December 22, the Council of Elders of the capital removed Hayk  Marutyan, who had been the mayor since September 2018. Marutyan's  impeachment was initiated by the Civil Contract party. The former  mayor was accused of drifting away from democratic and revolutionary  values and corruption.  Tigran Avinyan left the post of Deputy Prime  Minister in August 2021, but remained a member of the board of the  Civil Contract party. At the same time, according to him, he did not  participate in the election campaign, because he had some  disagreements with the team on the electoral list. Earlier, the media  have repeatedly written that after the parliamentary elections,  Avinyan will leave his post in the Cabinet and go .  Even before the  elections, there were reports of disagreements with the prime  minister on the issue of including business representatives, in  particular Khachatur Sukiasyan and Gurgen Arsenyan, in the electoral  list of the ruling party. The media also reported on the competition  between Avinyan and Sukiasyan over the post of the capital's mayor.