Davit Harutyunyan wins Yeghegnadzor community head vote

Davit Harutyunyan, the Republic party’s candidate, has been elected head of Armenia’s Yeghegnadzor community. The new council chose him at its first meeting on 11 November, with 14 votes to 13 for Civil Contract candidate Husik Sahakyan.

Harutyunyan has led Yeghegnadzor since 2012. The contest concerned an enlarged community: Areni and Yeghegis were merged with Yeghegnadzor through community consolidation. Sahakyan is the serving head of Areni, which he has led since 1996.

A deciding seat

The October 25 council election left Republic and the governing Civil Contract with equal numbers of seats, although Civil Contract received 189 more votes than Republic. New Era held the remaining seat, leaving its councillor in a position to decide the leadership vote.

New Era councillor Martin Harutyunyan decided to vote for Davit Harutyunyan. New Era took part in the parliamentary election as part of the Strong Armenia alliance.

Civic.am, a news site close to the governing Civil Contract party, said Strong Armenia, which it described as operating under New Era’s name, had voted for Republic. Earlier that day, the site had predicted that support, citing its own information.

NEWS.am said Civil Contract boycotted the proceedings and left the chamber midway through voting. The meeting continued after its members departed.