Lawyer: Gyumri council may hold runoff vote

PanARMENIAN.Net - If no candidate in the upcoming Gyumri city council vote receives 17 votes, a second round will be held between the two leading contenders, according to constitutional lawyer Gohar Meloyan. She explained the procedure and potential developments on her Facebook page.

“The next Gyumri council session is scheduled for April 16, based on preliminary results. The council has 33 seats. The head of the community is elected by a simple majority—at least 17 votes from council members,” Meloyan wrote.

Preliminary seat distribution is as follows:

• Civil Contract – 14 seats
• Communist Party – 8 seats
• Our City – 6 seats
• My Strong Community – 3 seats
• Mother Armenia – 2 seats

If no candidate secures the required 17 votes, a second-round vote will be held between the top two. The candidate who then receives the most votes will become the community leader.

However, the session can only take place if at least 17 council members attend. This means opposition members must be present for the session to proceed. If no valid session is held within two weeks and no leader is elected, new snap elections will be triggered. Thus, concerns that a second round will hand victory to Civil Contract may be overstated, Meloyan concluded.

The Central Electoral Commission has published preliminary results of the March 30 local snap elections. In Gyumri, no party won a majority, meaning coalitions will be needed to elect a mayor. If opposition forces unite, Gyumri may get an opposition mayor.

In Parakar, four political forces contested the election: Civil Contract (Ludvig Gyulnazaryan), Unity Alliance (Volodya Grigoryan), National Progress Party (David Minasyan), and Stability Party (Gor Saribekyan). The Unity Alliance is leading, and its affiliate Country to Live Party has declared Volodya Grigoryan as the winner.