2018 Yerevan City Council election


Yerevan City Council elections were held on September 23, 2018. The snap election was trigged after the resignation of former mayor Taron Margaryan amid the aftermath of the 2018 Armenian Velvet Revolution. Well-known comedian and actor Hayk Marutyan, heading the electoral list of the My Step alliance, was elected to the office of mayor of Yerevan.

Candidates

979 candidates competed for 65 open seats on the city council.
12 parties/alliances took part in the election :
Pre-election analysis of the top 10 lists from each party or alliance revealed that:
On average 12 top candidates have 2.8 children, with Raffi Hovhannisyan having the largest number, five, while only Naira Zohrabyan has just one child.
Most higher education accomplishments are listed for Artak Zeynalyan, though Raffi Hovhannisyan's list is most impressive one.

Electoral code and voter data

According to official data there were 848,343 eligible voters.
Foreign citizens living in Yerevan can cast their ballots in election if they have at least a one-year registration before voting day.
Electoral code defines one vote per voter and a threshold of 6 percent of cast ballots for parties and 8 percent for alliances, surpassing which is required for consideration during mandates allocation. Only if less than 3 parties/alliances pass the threshold all three best performing parties/alliances will be allocated mandates. A “bonus” to the political force that wins at least 40 percent of the council seats will allow it to occupy majority of the seats and appoint the new mayor of Yerevan.
Mandates will be allocated according to proportional representation principle, while regarding whole city area as one multi-mandate electoral district.

Election observation

Only one international organization was registered for monitoring the elections.
662 observers from 8 local organizations and 598 representatives of 49 media outlets will be participating. Ten of the representatives are from 5 foreign media outlets.

Electoral fraud prevention and counteraction

Ahead of the September 23 election, in the second and final reading the Armenian Parliament unanimously ratified a bill criminalizing electoral fraud. The amendments to Armenia’s Criminal Code make electoral fraud punishable by imprisonment whereas before, individuals charged with vote buying or selling were simply fined.
Police will establish a telephone Hot Line that can be used to report electoral fraud on election day. Anonymity of those who report corruption cases will be guaranteed.

Election campaign

Campaign was marked by bitter accusations by leading candidates. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said the elections will be between "bright" and "dark" forces.
After some candidates called for public debates and expressed their participation willingness a debate was scheduled to be broadcast on public TV on last campaign day, September 21 at 22:25 - just 95 minutes before "silence day" begins. Debate will be recorded in advance, rather than broadcast live. For this reason one candidate, Naira Zohrabyan, representing Prosperous Armenia Party declined participation and called for a live debate, while ten candidates confirmed their participation. If broadcast shall indeed end before midnight, assuming equal speaking time distribution to candidates and taking into amount some time for moderation it can be expected that effective speaking time per candidate will amount to only about 7 minutes.

Opinion polls

On September 11 Gallup International published an opinion poll survey. According to the poll:
If these numbers hold only top 3 parties/alliances will make into city council, as account shall be taken for cut-off thresholds and the rule of minimum of 3 parties/alliances representation.

Results

The My Step Alliance has won a landslide victory in the Yerevan City Council elections Sunday, according to preliminary data.
by districts of Yerevan.
Well-known comedian and actor Hayk Marutyan, who heads the electoral list of the My Step alliance, will automatically become the next mayor of Yerevan because this political force has garnered more than 50 percent of mandates, and in this case, according to the law, the person who heads the electoral list of the given political force is considered mayor-elect. Hayk Marutyan is expected to assume office on October 10. He is elected for the term of 4 years.