Dear fellow citizens of Yerevan, I inform that I am dropping my mandate of a member of the Council of Elders of Yerevan. This is what member of the “My Step” faction Lilit Pipoyan wrote on her Facebook page, adding the reasons for her decision.

“1. I didn’t want to be a part of the process of expressing no confidence in the mayor.

2. I have complaints about and disagreement with the institution of the Council of Elders itself; it definitely needs to undergo fundamental reforms in order to truly become a municipal authority, which it isn’t now. It needs to become a professional legislature for the city of Yerevan.

Unfortunately, my proposal to set up a Council for Monumental Art at Yerevan Municipality remained on paper, and it had taken me quite a long time to draft the proposal during the past months, but I will submit the complete proposal to the deputy mayor for cultural affairs with the hope that it will be implemented,” wrote Pipoyan.

With 44 votes ‘in favor’ and 10 votes ‘against’, the Council of Elders of Yerevan expressed no confidence Mayor Hayk Marutyan today, and Hrachya Sargsyan, who used to hold the position of First Deputy Mayor prior to that, was elected the new mayor.