YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 18, ARMENPRESS. The Public Voice Party, which garnered 9,68% votes in the Yerevan elections and won seats in the City Council, has announced its willingness to cooperate and form a coalition with the National Progress Party and Mother Armenia bloc, which garnered 18,89% and 15,43% votes respectively.
The Public Voice Party said it has one condition for the cooperation – any cooperation with Civil Contract or the Republic (Hanrapetutyun) parties must be ruled out and it must be given control over the oversight departments at city hall.
Civil Contract garnered most votes -32,57%, while Hanrapetutyun garnered 11,32%. None of the parties was able to take over 50% of votes which means that they will most likely have to form coalitions to be able to install a mayor.
“We’d announced from the very beginning that we’d never under any circumstances cooperate or form a coalition with Civil Contract, neither with its satellite parties,” Public Voice Vice President Vahan Avagyan told ARMENPRESS. “Regarding future steps, our honorary chairman [Vardan Ghukasyan] has already announced in a live broadcast that he is ready to unite with the National Progress Party and Mother Armenia bloc, and he mentioned the conditions, which are the following, all oversight departments at City Hall must be controlled by the Public Voice Party. We are lending a hand with our conditions, we are not fighting for the mayor’s seat, our goal is to change the government not only in Yerevan but in Armenia,” Avagyan said. He ruled out cooperation with the Hanrapetutyun party.
He said they haven’t yet discussed the proposal with National Progress and Mother Armenia.
The September 17 Yerevan City Council election was marked by record-low voter turnout. Only 234,553 (28,46%) of the 824,250 eligible voters cast their ballots.