In Yerevan city elections, focus on good governance

Published: Thursday May 21, 2009

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Democracy in Armenia

Residents of Yerevan have long elected their district administrators, but the mayor of the capital city as a whole has until now been appointed by the president. That is about to change with City Council elections scheduled for May 31.

The new City Council, which will have 65 members, is to be elected in the following way: Everyone – citizen or noncitizen – who has been a registered resident of Yerevan for the last year is eligible to vote. Every voter will cast a ballot for one party or bloc. That’s it.

The more votes a party gets, the better represented it will be on the City Council. The council will elect the mayor. Each party’s mayoral candidate is the first person on that party’s list of candidates.

This way of electing the councils tends to nationalize the election. Where people are asked to vote for a neighborhood or district representative, candidates may articulate a vision for the city as a whole, but they will tend to draw on local allegiances and address local issues. Candidates in the district with the city incinerator may focus on and debate different concerns than those in the hilly district with snow-removal issues.

Having the national parties run for citywide seats brings a different set of issues to the fore. That is because these parties have traditionally focused on foreign policy and on domestic issues within the jurisdiction of the national administration and legislature.

Today the challenge is to keep Yerevan’s municipal concerns in focus. These include zoning considerations – to protect and expand green spaces and to promote responsible construction – as well as the administration of schools, public transportation, accountability for coops in state-owned apartment complexes, and other quality-of-life issues.

After the February 19, 2008, presidential election, reflecting on the refusal of the runner-up to come to term with the results, we suggested, “There are avenues for a mobilized and responsible opposition to take from here on in.” Noting that Yerevan will be holding municipal elections before long, we wrote: “Part of democratic political culture, as President Kocharian recently noted, is accepting defeat at the polls; and, we would add, moving on to the next electoral contest with new ideas and renewed energy.”

A curious situation that has arisen in Armenia is that the runner-up in that presidential election, former President Levon Ter-Petrossian, is now running for mayor. Mr. Ter-Petrossian and his supporters have still not accepted defeat at the presidential polls; they have moved on to this, the next electoral contest, to revisit the results of the last contest.

This fact has further focused the election on national and even foreign-policy issues.

After the election, Mr. Ter-Petrossian’s bloc – which is not represented in parliament – could try to use the City Council as a forum to address issues that would normally be addressed in the National Assembly.

Alternatively, they could take advantage of the opportunity to showcase the kind of administration they would provide nationally. They could seek to build up people’s faith in them, and in government and the political process. That would be a good thing.

We hope all the members of the new City Council will focus on providing Yerevan with good government.

Meanwhile, the election itself will be administered by electoral commissions in which the various political parties are represented. Having free and fair elections is the shared responsibility of the administration and all the parties. Individual voters, as well as the media and civic organizations, all have a role to play.

Working together – in and out of the electoral commissions – to have a good, clean election for Yerevan should be the first joint good-government initiative of the contending parties.