Gyumri, Parakar elections confirm illegitimacy of Nikol Pashinyan`s  government - opposition MP

ArmInfo. The illegitimacy of Nikol Pashinyan's government was confirmed in the elections in Gyumri and Parakar. The residents of these communities, with their vote,  demonstrated their disagreement with the Turkish-Azerbaijani agenda  of the current government. The leader of the Mother Armenia  opposition faction in the Yerevan Council of Elders Andranik Tevanyan  wrote about this on his Facebook account, adding that these elections  were of national importance. 

As the leader of the opposition political force emphasized, even with  the use of administrative resources and election fraud methods, the  ruling Civil Contract party was able to collect only one third of the  votes of the total number of voters who took part in the elections.  In this regard, Tevanyan recalled that during the election campaign,  Nikol Pashinyan's supporters even resorted to the practice of  electoral bribes at the state level. "This was manifested in the form  of work or promises fulfilled at the expense of the state budget. In  Gyumri, where there is a high level of poverty, the candidate from  the government openly distributed bribes, be it firewood or promises  of asphalt paving and replacement of "light bulbs," Tevanyan  explained.

The politician expressed his conviction that if the government had  not used administrative resources, the Civil Contract party would  have received a maximum of 10% of the votes in Gyumri.

At the same time, Tevanyan emphasized that the elections in Gyumri  and Parakar refuted the myth that "it is impossible to defeat Nikol  Pashinyan in the elections" and that "it is wrong to go to the  elections with Nikol Pashinyan." "We must understand that going out  against the government with several units is more effective than  fighting with the so-called single candidate. Voters need to be  offered options, not a single "savior," " Tevanyan emphasized.

The faction leader also noted that the "anti-Russian and pro-Turkish  bloc" "European Alliance" did not overcome the 6% threshold, which  dispelled another myth about the presence of anti-Russian sentiments  in Gyumri. Thus, according to him, the Gyumri residents confused the  authorities' calculations and rejected the pro-Turkish forces.

"The elections in Gyumri were of national importance and were a kind  of referendum: by rejecting Nikol, Gyumri said "no" to his  Turkish-Azerbaijani agenda," the oppositionist noted.

Noting the importance of consolidating the opposition around a single  candidate in order to prevent a representative of the ruling force  from coming to power in Gyumri, Tevanyan confirmed that at the first  meeting of the newly elected Council of Elders, "Mother Armenia" will  vote to help the candidate who receives the most votes from the  opposition field become mayor.

"We are not forming a coalition, we are not joining anyone, we are  simply voting for the Civil Contract to be deprived of power. The  people of Gyumri have also given us a mandate for this. So there are  no deviations from the principles we have declared. If on the other  side there is Nikol Pashinyan's Turkish- Azerbaijani agenda, then we  can "get along" at the transitional stage, finding a common language  with local clans, until we kick out Nikol Pashinyan on a national  scale. After that, the process of improving political life will  begin," the leader of the opposition faction summed up.

On March 30 of this year, snap elections were held to the Council of  Elders of Gyumri in the Shirak region and Parakar in the Armavir  region. According to preliminary estimates, the ruling Civil Contract  party is in the lead in Gyumri, having gained 35.47% of the votes,  followed by the Communist Party of Armenia (18.41%) and the Our City  bloc (16.04%). Despite the fact that the representative of the ruling  party gained the largest number of votes, nevertheless, his political  force did not overcome the necessary 50+1 vote threshold for the sole  election of the mayor. Thus, if the opposition forces form a  coalition, Gyumri may have an opposition mayor. According to  preliminary data, candidate Volodya Grigoryan from the Unity bloc won  in Parakar, having secured the support of more than 56% of voters.