Voters there will elect a new municipal council that will in turn appoint the city’s mayor.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party faces an uphill battle to retain control of the municipal administration which it gained three months ago as a result of what its detractors see as an illegitimate power grab.
The upcoming election stems from last October’s mysterious resignations of Gyumri Mayor Vardges Samsonian, his deputies and city council members representing a local political bloc at odds with Pashinian’s government. The resignations followed criminal charges brought against the bloc’s unofficial leader, businessman Samvel Balasanian.
Balasanian, who now lives in the United States, never publicly commented on the accusations. Armenian opposition leaders believe that Pashinian ordered the criminal proceedings in order to install a new, loyal mayor. The premier and his loyalists have denied these claims.
The Armenian government appointed the ruling party’s mayoral candidate, Sarik Minasian, as interim mayor in December. Opposition groups and some media outlets have since accused Minasian of illegally using his government levers to boost his electoral chances. Pashinian’s political team denies this too.
Civil Contract is challenged in Gyumri by a range of opposition groups mostly led by well-known local figures. They include former Mayor Vartan Ghukasian, Gyumri-based parliamentarian Martun Grigorian, prominent television producer Ruben Mkhitarian and businessman Karen Simonian.
All four men have categorically ruled out the possibility of striking post-election power-sharing deals with Pashinian’s party. Mkhitarian, who has a large nationwide following on social media, expressed confidence earlier this week that the next Gyumri mayor will be in opposition to the central government.
“How can an Armenian guy form a coalition with them [Civil Contract] for the sake of positions or money?” Ghukasian said for his part.
The controversial ex-mayor, who ran the city from 1999 to 2012, toughened his anti-government rhetoric after being detained by police and held without charge for several hours on February 20.
Meanwhile, Minasian said that Gyumri voters will not back his main challengers because they are in linked to former Presidents Serzh Sarkisian and Robert Kocharian.
“The memories of our citizens are fresh and they will give a correct assessment,” the acting mayor told journalists.
Observers believe that the ruling party is unlikely to win an absolute majority of seats in the new city council and would have to cut a power-sharing deal with one or two other election contenders in order for Minasian to retain his post. The Euro Alliance of several pro-Western groups is widely regarded as its number one potential ally.
Leaders of the alliance have not denied being open to such a coalition arrangement. One of them, Aram Sarkisian, leads a party that helped Civil Contract install Yerevan’s current mayor, Tigran Avinian, after a municipal election held in September 2023.
Suren Sureniants, the Yerevan-based leader of the opposition Democratic Alternative party also running in the Gyumri election, said on Thursday that the Euro Alliance will campaign on an opposition platform in a bid to trick disgruntled local residents and then pass their votes on to Pashinian’s mayoral candidate.
“Through this alliance, the authorities are trying to introduce in Gyumri the same vicious model that helped the Civil Contract party cling to power in Yerevan,” claimed Sureniants.