Final list of candidates at Gyumri primaries to be published 

ArmInfo. The extraordinary meeting of the board of the ruling Civil Contract party discussed the  possible list of participants in the Gyumri primary elections.

, - Prime  Minister Nikol Pashinyan reports.

On October 28, Gyumri Mayor Vardges Samsonyan resigned. This happened  after a criminal case was opened against the founder of the bloc,  former mayor Samvel Balasanyan, who is accused of illegally  alienating land plots around the famous Black Fortress. One of  Balasanyan's sons was recently detained. At the same time, members of  the Council of Elders of the Balasanyan bloc also resigned. On  November 8, the meeting of the Gyumri Council of Elders to elect a  new mayor of the city failed due to the lack of a quorum. In this  regard, the Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Alen Simonyan  announced the holding of new elections in Gyumri, which, according to  preliminary data, will take place in the spring of 2024.

On November 27, the Prime Minister announced his intention to hold  intra-party voting (primaries) on December 8, 9 and 10 to elect the  acting mayor of Gyumri. The possible candidate, he indicated, should  be from the circles of members, associates, and like-minded people of  the State Duma. "I will appoint the candidate who wins the vote as  acting mayor of Gyumri, who, in all likelihood, will also become our  candidate in the upcoming elections to the Council of Elders of  Gyumri," Pashinyan said. The deadline for self-nomination is 12:00 on  December 2. The State Duma Board will publish the list of registered  candidates on the evening of December 3. "By decision of the Board,  candidates may or may not be registered, including for political  reasons," Nikol Pashinyan noted.

On December 2, Civil Contract MP Karen Sarukhanyan announced his  self-nomination for the post of acting mayor of Gyumri. Meanwhile,  earlier the media reported that Pashinyan instructed Sarukhanyan to  take a drug test to prove that he, like his cousin, does not use  drugs, and Sarukhanyan's test for prohibited substances showed a  positive result. Although Sarukhanyan himself indicated that the test  gave negative results for the presence of 19 substances, a positive  result was obtained when testing for barbiturates. He stated that  many people who use Corvalol or Valocordin as a sedative or sleeping  pill, which contain phenobarbital, which is part of the barbiturate  group, can have a positive result for barbiturates.