New Force party leader starts signature-collection campaign against  fare rise 

ArmInfo.Former Yerevan Mayor, leader of the New Force party Hayk Marutyan is starting to collect  signatures against raising public transport fares in the Armenian capital from January 1, 2025.

This February, the opposition in the Council of Elders announced that  the authorities intend to raise the fare to 260 drams from the  current 100 drams from January 2025. The authorities were quick to  announce that public transport fares would indeed increase, but the  fare would be 180 drams. In early March of this year, the Yerevan  Council of Elders, despite opposition protests, adopted the  corresponding bill.

According to Marutyan, the fare will increase from the current 100  drams to 300 drams from January 1. In case of purchasing a monthly  package, this amount will be 9,000 drams, which for a family of 4  people using transport means expenses of 36 thousand drams. Now all  that remains is to resort to direct democracy - to give people the  opportunity to express their disagreement by collecting signatures,  he emphasized. 

Special groups will collect signatures all over Yerevan, and then the  collected signatures are planned to be presented at the last meeting  of the Council of Elders this year. According to the former mayor, in  this case, the city authorities will be forced to fulfill the will of  the people. The initiators hope in this way to force the city  authorities to reconsider their decision and keep the current tariff  of 100 drams.