YEREVAN. – Arakelutyun (Mission) Party’s Armenian capital city Yerevan mayoral candidate Mesrop Arakelyan cast his ballot in Sunday’s Yerevan Council of Elders election.

Arakelyan arrived in his election precinct together with his wife.

During his briefing with news reporters after having voted, the mayoral candidate stated that he is in a wonderful mood. 

“I am more than convinced that the Yerevan residents will vote for substantial changes and will receive, over time, the capital city they dream of,” Arakelyan stressed.   

As for the ongoing reports on election violations, the Yerevan mayoral candidate stressed in particular as follows:

“The time will come and we will express our position on the occurring election violations.” 

In response to the query as to whether he has hopes that the elections will be transparent and fair, Mesrop Arakelyan stressed that this does not depend on the hopes because real, revolutionary changes were not made. But he expressed a hope that the non-governmental political forces will carefully follow the course of the voting.   

To note, the second Yerevan Council of Elders elections are being conducted on Sunday, and 464 precincts have opened for the voting. A total of 816,457 people are included in the voters’ list.

Six political parties and one bloc are running in the vote. They are the Republican Party of Armenia, Prosperous Armenia Party, Orinats Yerkir (Rule of Law), Armenian National Congress Party (ANCP), Arakelutyun (Mission) Party , ARF Dashnaktsutyun Party, and the “Barev, [Hello] Yerevan” bloc of parties.

The participating political forces are vying for 65 Council of Elders seats. The council election is held with proportional—that is, party—lists only.