The community comprised the town of Vagharshapat and several nearby villages until its pro-government mayor, Diana Gasparian, resigned in May this year shortly before being prosecuted on corruption charges. Following Gasparian’s resignation, the Armenian government decided to merge it with over a dozen other villages ahead of the snap election scheduled for November 16,
Analysts believe that the decision is aimed at helping Civil Contract retain control of the local government. Some of them have suggested that it is now too unpopular in Vagharshapat to win the election without the backing of rural voters.
Pashinian’s party is challenged by several opposition groups, including the Victory bloc led by Sevak Khachatrian, the runner-up in the last local ballot. Other major contenders include the Fatherland party of former National Security Service (NSS) Director Artur Vanetsian and the Mayr Hayastan (Mother Armenia) party represented in the municipal councils of Yerevan and Gyumri.
The ruling party’s list of election candidates is topped by Argishti Mekhakian, the acting community mayor appointed by the government. Mekhakian found himself in hot water after attending on Tuesday a supposed charity event in one of the community villages, Doghs. Lyudvig Yayloyan, the village administration chief who is second on the Civil Contract list, was also in attendance along with the governor of the surrounding Armavir province.
Footage posted online by journalist Lia Sargsian showed Yayloyan handing out gifts to village children on behalf of a local benefactor. One of the children received $10,000 in cash. Mekhakian stood on stage during the event that also involved a free dinner party for scores of villagers.
The vote-monitoring group Akanates (Witness) set up by Western-funded non-governmental organizations based in Yerevan condemned the event as a vote-buying operation. In a “crime report” submitted to the Office of the Prosecutor-General, Akanates said it violated an article of the Armenian Criminal Code that prohibits election candidates from distributing any material aid or services to voters. Mekhakian denied any connection between the gift distribution and the upcoming election.
“A man who has been doing charity work in his village for over 30 years invited me and Mr. Yayloyan to one of his regular events,” he said. “I think it would not be appropriate to refuse the invitation.”
The prosecutors did not immediately respond to the allegations. Armenian law-enforcement authorities are not known to have filed vote-buying charges against any Civil Contract candidates during Pashinian’s rule. They have prosecuted many opposition candidates instead.
Opposition contenders, notably the Victory bloc’s Khachatrian, accused Mekhakian of abusing his government levers for electoral purposes even before the latest scandal. The mayor denied those claims, saying that he is simply performing his duties.
“I am sure that Civil Contract will be defeated here just like it was defeated on March 30 in [the neighboring community of] Parakar and Gyumri,” Khachatrian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service last week.
He claimed that Pashinian’s continuing campaign against the top clergy of the Armenian Apostolic Church has seriously hurt the ruling party’s electoral chances. Vagharshapat is home to Holy Echmiadzin, the seat of the church’s supreme head, Catholicos Garegin II.
