It is the first time Yerevan is holding local government elections for the purpose of electing a mayor. Even though the mayor will be elected indirectly, this is the first time that the mayor of Yerevan is elected. The new system of electing mayor of Yerevan is introduced by the authorities as improvement for the purpose of developing democracy and decentralizing the power. From the declarative point of view it looks like the work is being done because in the recent period Armenia has been active in the process of integrating with Europe. In practice this is done through Armenia’s participation in the New Neighborhood project and the Eastern Partnership project. As in the documents of cooperation with almost all other European institutions, in the mentioned cooperation documents Armenia takes on a responsibility to develop democracy and make the sub-systems of the society consistent with European standards (including the political and local government systems) as well. It is a pity that the efforts to implement steps for the mentioned purpose are still beautiful words, and the example of this fact is the manner of the pre-election campaign on the threshold of the city council elections in Yerevan. Everything is proceeding in accordance with the “good traditions” of Armenia and the authorities are using governmental resources, representatives of criminal structures are involved in their campaign, the participation lists are being falsified in advance, etc. In other words, the elections of city council that should be a step toward developing democracy in Armenia are proceeding through the use of methods which are against democracy, thus there is a possibility that the results of the elections may be falsified too. This means that again the administrative structure of Yerevan will be an imitation of a European model but in fact it will fulfill the same functions as the other local governments of Armenia, i.e. they will do their best to reproduce the top of the governmental pyramid. This publication on the threshold of May 31 city council elections in Yerevan will be dedicated to the issue of the European model of local government which Armenia tends to adopt. Armenia wants to adopt, but yet it is done only formally.
This supplement has been produced with the assistance of the European Union. The content of this supplement is the sole responsibility of “168 Hours” Newspaper and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union