Hayk Gevorgyan
The public television company has started a series of debates ahead of the Yerevan Council of Elders elections, which are also a requirement of the law. Today, at 22:00, the first televised debate of the 2023 Yerevan Council of Elders elections will take place live. It is held in accordance with the requirements of the Electoral Code and with the technical advisory support of the National Democracy Institute (NDI), in accordance with international standards. The TV debate will be broadcast live on First channel, First news channel and Public’s social platforms. Numbers 2-6 of the lists of parties and alliances registered for the elections will take part in today’s TV debate, but on September 14, at 10:00 p.m., only the persons mentioned in the first number of the electoral lists of the forces participating in the elections were invited.
As it is known, Hayk Marutyan, the former mayor of Yerevan, an actor, and now a candidate for mayor, refuses to appear on Petros Ghazaryan’s broadcasts, considering them one-sided and not impartial. Artak Galstyan, the number one leader of the “Public Voice” party, is in detention. Tigran Avinyan, who occupies the first place in the CP, also did not go public, it seems that Avinyan also does not sympathize with Petros Ghazaryan and his plans.
“Hraparak” tried to find out which of the mayoral candidates will go to the debate organized by the public. Especially, when we are talking about leaders. The spokesperson of CP headquarters Hayk Kostanyan informed “Hraparak” that Tigran Avinyan will definitely participate in the debate organized by Public. Tigran Urikhanyan, who occupies the second number of “Public Voice”, noted that there is no clarification in this regard yet. Urikhanyan mentioned. “I would be happy to participate if the public would like to ensure my participation through online broadcasting. I would dedicate that debate to the series of my findings and I would dedicate the most noisy part to the city of Yerevan itself, to the city administration,” he said.
Isabella Abgaryan, who is number three on Hayk Marutyan’s list, informed us that Marutyan will not go to H1 as long as the debates and programs are conducted by a man whose wife works as a minister today. According to Abgaryan, the minister’s husband cannot be an objective TV journalist, so it is pointless to go to the debate organized by such a TV journalist. “We have set the demand: we will participate in the debate, if it is objective, and not if the debater’s wife is a member of the political team – a minister, which already means dependence. We see obvious subjectivity during those programs, just let them change the presenter, that’s the demand. As long as Petros Ghazaryan is in H1, Marutyan will not go there. We prefer objective information,” says Isabella Abgaryan. We asked Abgaryan whether there is an objective in Public