The swearing-in ceremony of the newly elected mayor of Vardenis, Armenia, Aharon Khachatryan took place at the courtyard of the town hall, as the police did not allow the members of the newly elected town council to enter the town hall building.

"Dear Vardenis residents, many artificial obstacles were created during the election of the head of Vardenis community, as well as during the inauguration. But as you can see, our team overcame those obstacles, did not back down in the face of any difficulty while reaching its goal," the mayor-elect said, in particular, during the swearing-in ceremony.

As reported earlier, in the December 5 local elections in Vardenis, the ruling Civil Contract Party (CCP) had won 13 seats, the opposition Aharon Khachatryan bloc—10 seats, and the opposition United Vardenis—4 seats in the town council. Then, the opposition forces had signed a memorandum to form a coalition, and therefore the number of their town council seats was enough to elect their mayor candidate.

After that, former mayor of Vardenis Aram Harutyunyan, who topped the electoral list of United Vardenis, was charged in a criminal case against him and was arrested.

The first session of the new Vardenis Council of Elders had taken place on December 30. But before the session started, the police had attempted to apprehend another opposition member of the council, Aharon Khachatryan, who is the opposition’s candidate for mayor. Three hours later, the opposition finally had managed to convene a session and elect Khachatryan mayor. The CCP members of this council, however, had not attended this session.