On October 30, people were pretty energetic in the rehabilitating Varanda village of the Martuni district of Karabagh, where there are currently 17 families. For the first time, the residents of Varanda had come to one of the village homes (temporarily given to the school) to vote for their community head and members of the alderman council. Until then, the village did not have the status of a community and the acting manager was Rudik Baghdasaryan who had not even put up his nomination. In addition, the acting manager was not a resident of Varanda.
One of the four candidates for regional chief is a woman whose name is Alina Sevlikyan and she has ten children. She and her children have been living in Varanda since 2001. Fifty six people had the right to take part in the community head and alderman council elections, but only fifty one voted. The struggle was between three candidates and Aram Avanesyan was elected regional chief by winning 23 votes. We must also mention that five of the six candidates for the alderman council were women. We found out from the interview with the candidates that in contrast to the rest of the villages, this village has many problems. According to the newly elected regional chief, the prior issues are the development of the school building and agriculture.
Alina Sevlikyan worries about the drinking water and stated that the water is not drinkable during rainy weather. She also said that it was important to solve the issue concerning medical centers. The nurse can pay visits here two times a week. In regard to medicine, she said: “We lack many means of acquiring drugs. I have an 8 year old child and he still has not been vaccinated.” While talking about the issues, A. Sevlikyan emphasized that there has not been any privatization and the residents do not have any certificates for property privatization. On October 30, elections also took place in another rehabilitation village called Vazgenashen in the Martuni district. Sergey Aghasyan was elected community head for the village. We found out from the Karabagh Central Electoral Committee that there will be upcoming and special elections for community heads on November 20 in nine communities of Karabagh.