Alaverdi Mayor Not Ready to Easily Yield Position to the Ruling Party Representative

The newspaper "Hraparak" reports: "The power's year-long operation to seize Alaverdi has entered a decisive phase. Yesterday, the Council of Alaverdi affiliated with the ruling Republican Party initiated a motion of no confidence against the community leader Arkadi Tamazyan, who was elected with the quota of the 'Living Land' party.

The defeat in last year’s local elections has not been easy for the ruling party to digest; initially, they tried to pressure Tamazyan with criminal cases, but to no avail. They then resorted to the tested method of political maneuvering by bringing in Simon Zakharov, a doctor from the city's hospital and a member of the council, into their fold, who, according to reports, has been promised the position of chief physician at the hospital. Zakharov, known in the team as 'the rat,' has also signed the no-confidence motion.

According to the law, once the motion is introduced, the council is required to convene a session to discuss the issue three days later at 10:00 AM. However, according to sources, the opposition authority in Alaverdi is not willing to concede easily. The thing is, weeks ago, Tamazyan’s allies began a fictitious impeachment process, which, of course, did not conclude, as the ruling party succeeded in pulling Zakharov from the opposition. After the impeachment process, the law prohibits any new impeachment attempts against the mayor for at least a year, and moreover, the law does not specify whether the process is considered completed or not.

Therefore, Alaverdi’s authorities are not willing to back down, taking the issue to the courts, which will decide whether there is a legal right to initiate a no-confidence motion against a mayor who has not yet completed one year in office. The candidate for mayor from the ruling party is former Armenian Revolutionary Federation member David Qumashyan, about whom there has been no shortage of scandalous coverage in the media. He currently leads the Alaverdi City Council for the ruling party."