Polling stations across Yerevan opened on Sunday morning (8.00 am) for an estimated 771,000 eligible voters to cast their ballots in the capital’s first municipal elections in nearly two decades.

(Since the adoption of Armenia’s constitution in 1995, the mayor of Yerevan has been appointed by the president. The constitutional reform of 2005 in line with Armenia’s commitments to the Council of Europe paved the way for a direct election of the city council that in turn elects a mayor.)

The elections contested by seven political forces, including six parties and one bloc (See: Election Trivia) are believed to be a major test of government popularity in the city that holds more than a third of Armenia’s population and dominates the country’s economic life.

Potentially, the Yerevan polls also set the stage for another showdown involving ex-President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, who tops the ticket of his opposition Armenian National Congress (ANC), and current President Serzh Sargsyan, whose ruling Republican Party of Armenia has fielded the city’s incumbent mayor as the top candidate for the post.

Sargsyan won the presidential race of February 2008, receiving more than twice as many votes as his next challenger Ter-Petrosyan – in an election that was viewed by domestic and foreign observers as fraudulent and put Sargsyan’s legitimacy in question. Nonstop rallies staged by Ter-Petrosyan supporters in central Yerevan for ten days led to a violent breakup by security forces and subsequent deadly clashes between demonstrators and police resulting in ten deaths and hundreds of injuries.

Ter-Petrosyan and his supporters (dozens of whom remain jailed for their alleged roles in the March 1, 2008 events that state prosecutors have tried to prove amounted to coup d’etat) have repeatedly said during the campaign that they view the local race in Yerevan as “the runoff of the presidential election” that was never held after the Constitutional Court recognized Sargsyan’s outright victory (with 52.8 percent of the vote).

The opposition has indicated that taking control in the 65-seat Yerevan assembly could be the first step in their broader efforts of achieving a power change in the country.

Meanwhile, Sargsyan’s Republican Party appears confident of another election success that will allow them to govern Yerevan solo. But unlike the previous (presidential) election, this time the Republicans face competition from their junior coalition partner, Prosperous Armenia. The two came first and (distant) second in the 2007 parliamentary elections, but backed the same candidate in the 2008 presidential race.

Orinats Yerkir, another governing coalition member, and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), which exited the coalition and withdrew its members from the cabinet and other government structures over foreign policy differences with the Sargsyan administration, have also been contesting the elections separately.

The elections to the Yerevan municipal assembly are held under a proportional system of representation.
The election hurdle for six parties that also include the People’s Party (led by Head of the ALM Media Holding Tigran Karapetyan) and the little-known Labor Socialist Party of Armenia is 7 percent, while for one election bloc – Ter-Petrosyan’s ANC it is 9 percent.

If one party or bloc manages to receive at least 40 percent of the vote, its top candidate will automatically become mayor. If neither party or bloc gets that majority, the decision will be collectively on the newly elected assembly.

Early official results are expected within 24 hours after the polls close at 8.00 pm.