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Yerevan City Council election was held on May 5, 2013. The Republican Party of Armenia won 56% of the total vote, Prosperous Armenia had 23%, while Barev Yerevan won over 8%. The opposition parties and the local observers denounced the elections as "unfair".
The first Yerevan City Council election was held on 31 May 2009. The Republican Party of Armenia, which has been the ruling party in Armenia since 1999 won a majority in the legislature of Armenia's capital.
A disputed presidential election was held in Armenia on 18 February 2013. Since 19 February, Raffi Hovannisian, the runner-up of the election from the Heritage party claimed victory due to alleged electoral fraud that took place the day before. On 10 March 2013, after weeks of mass protests, Hovannisian announced about his decision to start a hunger strike calling incumbent and officially elected President Serzh Sargsyan to resign before 9 April, the inauguration day and find a "solution of this unprecedented pan-national fundamental issue before April 9." [1]
On 15 March 2013, Hovannisian talking about his future plans while on hunger strike in the Freedom Square, stated that "Heritage Party will present its list next week: a man of the people will be the mayor of Yerevan. Yerevan will be returned to the people."
As the election day came closer, tensions between two former coalition members, PAP and RPA, grew, particularly on "young wings" level. A similar situation was witnessed prior to the 2012 parliamentary election. [2]
Seven parties were registered: [3]
The election campaign started on 7 April 2013. [7]
Raffi Hovannisian who disputes the 18 February presidential election and planned to hold an unofficial inauguration at the same time as officially elected President Serzh Sargsyan on 9 April, joined Barev Yerevan alliance's first-day campaign with tree planting in central Yerevan. Barev Yerevan is made up of mostly his Heritage party members and activists, in addition to a few members from the Democratic Way Party. [8]
All opposition parties including Heritage, ANC, ARF and Prosperous Armenia denounced the voting lists, claiming that the Republican Party registers people from outside of Yerevan. [9] [10] The ANC representatives claimed that the "Republicans, using their levers of state power, in this case the passport and visa department, are engaged in voter list trickery." [11] On April 22, 2013, several ANC youth members were beaten up in Ajapnyak. [12]
According to the Central Election Commission, over 1,700 observers (local and international) were registered for monitoring the election. [13] For the first time, over 100 diaspora Armenians will be observing the elections. [14]
"Under the election law that pertains to the Yerevan municipal vote, a political party, or a bloc of parties, that manages to receive more than 40 percent of the vote will automatically have its top candidate installed as mayor. If neither party or bloc can get that majority, the decision will be collectively upon the newly elected Council of Elders." [15]
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
| Republican | 235,512 | 55.89% | 42 |  7 | |
| PAP | 97,189 | 23.07% | 17 |  0 | |
| Barev Yerevan | 35,732 | 8.48% | 6 | 6 | |
| ANC | 18,499 | 4.39% | 0 |  13 | |
| ARF | 15,999 | 3.80% | 0 | 0 | |
| Rule of Law (Armenia) | 15,733 | 3.73% | 0 | 0 | |
| Mission | 2,692 | 0.64% | 0 | 0 | |
| Invalid votes | 15,250 | — | — | — | |
| Total | 437,212 | 100.00% | 65 | — | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electorate and turnout: | 816,478 | 53.53% | — | — | |
| Source: Central Electoral Commission of Armenia | |||||
According to the Armenian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, "groups of pro-government youths standing in or outside polling stations, keeping a watchful eye on voters and clearly influencing the process have been a fixture in Armenian elections." [16] Throughout the election day, the opposition parties accused the ruling Republican party for alleged electoral violations. [17] Most local observation mission also stated the elections were not fair. [18]
The results of the election were denounced by the main opposition parties. [19]
The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities Election Observation Mission, the only international observation mission, led by Stewart Dickson stated that the "secrecy of ballot was respected in great part." [24]
The Republican Party of Armenia is a national-conservative political party in Armenia led by the third president of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan.
Levon Hakobi Ter-Petrosyan, also known by his initials LTP, is an Armenian politician and historian who served as the first president of Armenia from 1991 until his resignation in 1998.
Heritage is an Armenian national liberal political party. It was founded in 2002 by Raffi Hovannisian, independent Armenia's first Foreign Minister.
Raffi K. Richardi Hovannisian is an Armenian politician, the first Foreign Minister of Armenia and the founding leader of the national liberal Heritage party. He is the founder of the Armenian Center for National and International Studies, the country's first independent research center.
Presidential elections were held in Armenia on 19 February 2008. Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan was elected in the first round according to official results, but this was disputed by former President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, who was officially placed second.
Nikol Vovayi Pashinyan is an Armenian politician serving as the prime minister of Armenia since 8 May 2018. A journalist by profession, Pashinyan founded his own newspaper in 1998, which was shut down a year later for libel. He was sentenced for one year for defamation against then Minister of National Security Serzh Sargsyan. He edited the newspaper Haykakan Zhamanak from 1999 to 2012. A supporter of Armenia's first president Levon Ter-Petrosyan, he was highly critical of second president Robert Kocharyan, Defense Minister Serzh Sargsyan, and their allies. Pashinyan was also critical of Armenia's close relations with Russia, and promoted establishing closer relations with Turkey instead. He led a minor opposition party in the 2007 parliamentary election, garnering 1.3% of the vote.
The Armenian National Congress is an Armenian political party led by former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan and was formed in 2008. Its direct predecessor was the Pan-Armenian National Movement. It is often abbreviated as ՀԱԿ or HAK, in keeping with its Armenian spelling, but it is occasionally referred to as the ANC in English, including on its official website.
The 2011 Armenian protests were a series of civil demonstrations aimed at provoking political reforms and concessions from both the government of Armenia and the civic government of Yerevan, its capital and largest city. Protesters demanded President Serzh Sargsyan release political prisoners, prosecute those responsible for the deaths of opposition activists after the 2008 presidential election and institute democratic and socioeconomic reforms, including the right to organise in Freedom Square in downtown Yerevan. They also protested against Yerevan Mayor Karen Karapetyan for banning the opposition from Freedom Square and barring vendors and traders from the city streets. The opposition bloc Armenian National Congress, which has played a major role in organising and leading the demonstrations, had also called for a snap election and the resignation of the government.
Parliamentary elections were held in Armenia on 6 May 2012. President Serzh Sargsyan's ruling Republican Party gained more majority of the parliament seats. Armenia's wealthiest man Gagik Tsarukyan's Prosperous Armenia came second with about one fourth of the seats, while ANC, ARF, Rule of Law and Heritage won less than 10 percent each.
Presidential elections were held in Armenia on 18 February 2013. In the run-up to the elections, Armenia's first President Levon Ter-Petrosyan and Gagik Tsarukyan, leader of the second largest parliamentary party Prosperous Armenia, withdrew from the race in December 2012. Many believed that no candidate would be able to challenge incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan, others stated that people see "absence of alternatives" and these factors caused great apathy among the public.
Various political and civil groups staged anti-government protests in Armenia in 2013. The first series of protests were held following the 2013 presidential election and were led by the former presidential candidate Raffi Hovannisian. Hovannisian, who, according to official results, lost to incumbent Serzh Sargsyan, denounced the results claiming they were rigged. Starting on 19 February, Hovannisian and his supporters held mass rallies in Yerevan's Freedom Square and other cities. On 10 March, Hovannisian started a hunger strike, calling elected President Sargsyan to resign before 9 April, the inauguration day. Hovannisian called "for the solution of this unprecedented pan-national fundamental issue before April 9." During an interview on 18 March 2013, Sargsyan said he would not visit Hovannisian and described his claims as "arrogant phrases seasoned with obscenities". Sargsyan was inaugurated on 9 April 2013, while Hovannisian and thousands of people gathered in the streets of Yerevan to protest it, clashing with the police forces blocking the way to the Presidential Palace. Hovannisian's movement was dubbed "Barevolution", a portmanteau of barev and revolution, referring to Raffi Hovannisian's habit of walking up to people and greeting them during the election campaign.
Armen Martirosyan is an Armenian politician from the Heritage party.
The following lists events that happened during 2013 in Armenia.
A constitutional referendum was held in Armenia on 6 December 2015. Its amendments to the constitution put the country on a course from having a semi-presidential system to being a parliamentary republic, with the changes beginning to take place during the 2017–18 electoral cycle. The referendum passed with 66.2% of voters supporting it. Voter turnout was 50.8%, passing the 33% threshold to validate the results.
The 2018 Armenian Revolution, most commonly known in Armenia as #MerzhirSerzhin, was a series of anti-government protests in Armenia from April to May 2018 staged by various political and civil groups led by a member of the Armenian parliament — Nikol Pashinyan. Protests and marches took place initially in response to Serzh Sargsyan's third consecutive term as the most powerful figure in the government of Armenia, later broadening against the ruling Republican Party, who were in power since 1999. Pashinyan declared it a Velvet Revolution.
Yerevan City Council elections were held on 23 September 2018. The snap election was triggered after the resignation of former mayor Taron Margaryan amid the aftermath of the 2018 Armenian Velvet Revolution. Well-known comedian and actor Hayk Marutyan, heading the electoral list of the My Step Alliance, was elected to the office of mayor of Yerevan.
The Democratic Homeland Party is an Armenian political party. The Chairman of the party is Petros Makeyan.
The Armenian National Movement (ANM) is a political party in Armenia. It is led by Ararat Zurabyan, the former chairman of the Pan-Armenian National Movement and a former member of the Free Democrats.
Hello Yerevan, was a political alliance in Armenia. It was led by Armen Martirosyan.
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| Presidential elections | |
| Local elections | |
| Referendums | |
