Armenia’s second largest city of Gyumri has been left without a municipal administration for almost a month, with the central government still not clarifying as of Friday afternoon whether it will hold a snap election there in the coming weeks.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party has signaled plans to delay the holding of an early municipal election in Gyumri, raising concerns among local opposition groups.
The ruling Civil Contract party’s presumptive top candidate in the upcoming municipal election in Gyumri denied on Tuesday media reports that he bitterly argued and brawled with other local activists allied to the Armenian government.
Gyumri’s City Council failed to secure a quorum on Friday during a special session convened to elect a new mayor, setting the stage for possible snap elections in Armenia’s second largest community.
All members of the majority faction in the City Council in Gyumri not representing Armenia’s ruling party have given up their seats following the reported resignation of Mayor Vardges Samsonian, potentially prompting a vote in the local legislature on a new head of Armenia’s second largest city.
The ruling Civil Contract party is starting preparations for a fresh municipal election in Gyumri following a government crackdown on a local businessman whose bloc runs Armenia’s second largest city.
After an arrest warrant issued for their unofficial leader, Gyumri Mayor Vardges Samsonian and other members of a political bloc running Armenia’s second largest city are expected to resign from the local council, raising the prospect of a snap election there.
Law-enforcement authorities have issued an arrest warrant for Gyumri’s former Mayor Samvel Balasanian nearly one year after the ruling Civil Contract party pulled out of a power-sharing deal with his political team that continues to run Armenia’s second largest city.
Several pro-Western political and civic groups announced on Monday that they will start collecting next month signatures in support of their demands for a referendum on Armenia’s membership in the European Union.
Several families in a small village in northwestern Armenia have been increasingly worried about the fate of their relatives in Kursk since Moscow’s war against Ukraine spilled over into this Russian region earlier this month.
Vazgen Mkhitarian, a native of the village of Voskehat in Armenia’s Shirak province, says he plans to return to Kursk despite the fighting that erupted in this Russian region last week.
An outspoken priest leading Armenia’s latest protest movement vowed renewed efforts to remove Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian from power as he continued to tour Armenia’s regions this month.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s main political factions have rejected as inadequate the Armenian government’s new plan to help Karabakh refugees obtain permanent housing in Armenia.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party dropped its objections to the 2024 municipal budget of Gyumri on Tuesday more than one month after pulling out of a power-sharing agreement with the city’s mayor.
Armenia’s ambassador to Iraq was sacked on Friday three weeks after the ruling Civil Contract party pulled out of a power-sharing agreement in Gyumri with a local political group unofficially led by his father.
Parliament speaker Alen Simonian on Friday accused the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) of “criminal inaction” and did not rule out the possibility of Armenia’s exit from the Russian-led military alliance.
The mayor of Armenia’s second largest city of Gyumri made clear on Wednesday that he will not resign following the collapse of his bloc’s coalition arrangement with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party.
Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party gave no indications on Monday that it will try to oust the mayor of Gyumri through a no-confidnce vote after pulling out of a power-sharing agreement with his political force.
Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party on Wednesday pulled out of a power-sharing agreement with a political group that won most votes in municipal elections held in Gyumri two years ago.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian touted his government’s handling of the massive influx of refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh on Thursday even as at least 1,700 of them continued to live in kindergartens, schools and other buildings hastily converted into shelters.
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