Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Mayor of Yerevan should be elected

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Mayor of Yerevan should be elected

    A1plus

    | 12:24:04 | 09-07-2005 | Politics |

    MAYOR OF YEREVAN SHOULD BE ELECTED

    On the demand of the Venice Commission the RA authorities resigned
    themselves to the fact that the Mayor of Yerevan should be elected.
    Nevertheless they have left a loophole: the parliamentary majority will
    spare no effort to make the elections not indirect, that is to say by the
    elected community council.

    `Thus the elected Mayor will be a marionette. About 75 members of the
    community council will elect the Mayor. The 70 people, who elect the Mayor
    by order of the authorities, will demand lands, money and business from
    him', independent deputy Manuk Gasparyan stated in a conversation with our
    reporter. `In this way it would be better to leave the Mayor be elected', he
    added. To note, he is going to run for the post.

    The parliamentary opposition, which is supposed to share the opinion of the
    leadership after returning from Strasbourg, is against the election of the
    Mayor by the community council. Justice faction member Shavarsh Kocharyan
    considers that the Mayor should be elected by people. `As a matter of fact
    the European Charter on Local Self-Government does not exclude election by
    the community council; however a united logic should function in the
    country: either the Mayor is elected by the community council (like in many
    European states) or on the contrary. Presently we want to implement a double
    logic. It does not beneath any criticism. Why Yerevan should differ from any
    other community? The Venice Commission is content, since such elections meet
    the commitments of the European Charter. They seem not to be interest in the
    result,' he says.

    RPA leader Galust Sahakyan is convinced that a community council will
    function in Yerevan and it will elect one of its members the Mayor by secret
    vote. In his words, such mechanism functioned in 1990-1995 and no problems
    emerged.

    Opinions of the members of People's deputy group differ. Some think that the
    Mayor should be elected directly, the others think that he should be elected
    by the community council. Group member Mkrtich Minasyan considers that the
    Mayor should be elected by the people. He notes that if elected by the
    community council he will account only to the council. `If we want a strong
    Mayor, he should be elected directly and be responsible for the people In
    this case he will have more power and authority', he resumed.

    Diana Markosyan

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Working...
X