Hraparak daily of Armenia writes as follows, in particular: [PM] Nikol Pashinyan and his team are actively preparing for the LSG [i.e. local self-government] elections to be held in the fall.

We had written that they have made it especially a matter of honor to win in Stepanavan [city], since in the parliamentary elections [on June 7] [opposition Strong Armenia movement leader] Samvel Karapetyan's team dealt a crushing defeat to the authorities in this community. The authorities have already drawn up several scenarios, hoping that one of them will justify itself.

As is known, Stepanavan is being enlarged, the Gyulagarak and Lori Berd communities are being merged into it. We were told that the heads of the three large communities were summoned to the government, and the electoral plan was discussed with them. Accordingly, all three should be nominated.

The calculation is probably to extract as many votes as possible from all communities. They were told that the candidate who receives the most votes will become the favorite of the authorities and, with the support of others, will become community leader.

Let us recall that [defense minister] Suren Papikyan and his family were responsible for this area in the parliamentary elections, but they put their blame on the mistakes of the defeat on the incumbent mayor of Stepanavan, [saying] that the latter has restored ties with the predecessors and spared no effort for their victory.