YEREVAN. – Armenia’s ruling Republican Party (RPA) will support Artik city’s incumbent Mayor, RPA member Khachatur Varagyan’s candidacy in Artik’s mayoral elections to be held on September 9, RPA Organizing Committee Chairman Ruben Tadevosyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

In response to the question as to how many votes RPA will receive as a result of the local government elections, he said:

“If we study the state of the candidates’ nomination, [we can see that] we will have an approximately 65-70 percent result. We have that indicator now, as well, and we will maintain it, [and] even more.”   

And with respect to the query as to whether or not these local government elections will be somewhat of a test in the lead-up to Armenia’s presidential elections slated for next year, RPA official noted that they underscore the local government elections as an institution, and, if the latter is guided correctly, it will be fairly easy to correctly organize the nationwide elections.

“They are correlated. We are persistent in terms of establishing this institution and participating in the processes,” said Ruben Tadevosyan.