Opposition urges snap elections in Yerevan city council

PanARMENIAN.Net - The "Civil Contract" faction of Yerevan's City Council disrupted a scheduled Q&A session by leaving the chamber. Twenty-two opposition members had registered for the meeting. Deputy Mayor Armen Pambukhchyan, who was chairing the session, announced there was no quorum and ordered the live broadcast to be stopped.

After the Deputy Mayor left, opposition members held the session independently, chaired by Samvel Haroyan, secretary of the Mother Armenia faction, with Zaruhi Postanjyan live-streaming it on Facebook, according to Panorama.am .

During the session, Mother Armenia faction leader Manuk Sukiasyan stated: “Once again, it became evident that Yerevan is being governed by cowardly and irresponsible individuals who ran from the session they themselves convened.” He noted that the opposition’s transport initiatives hinder the authorities, and pledged continued resistance until the Civil Contract party is removed from city power.

Sukiasyan presented a draft resolution demanding the suspension of the decision to raise public transport fares.

“Yerevan is in crisis. The capital’s leadership is irresponsible and unfit for their roles. Snap council elections are more relevant than ever,” Sukiasyan emphasized.

Council member Mesrop Manukyan also spoke, citing that last year “Yerevan Bus” collected 28 million drams daily with a 100-dram fare, despite driver theft. Now, with increased fares and 20% of routes under city control, collections have only risen to 33 million drams daily.

He added that 10 million drams are collected daily from metro entrances alone, and that data from electric transport has yet to be published.

Manukyan accused the fare policy of causing major budget losses for the municipality and urged the Prosecutor General’s Office and the National Security Service to investigate his figures. He committed to bearing responsibility if his claims proved inaccurate.

Previously, members of the “Mother Armenia” faction had staged a protest outside the National Assembly against a draft law proposing administrative penalties for fare evasion in public transport.