A vote of no confidence against Mayor Hayk Marutyan and the election of Deputy Mayor Hrachya Sargsyan as the new mayor took place at Wednesday's special session of the Yerevan Council of Elders.

A total of 57 members of the city council voted in the respective secret ballot.

As a result, 44 members voted in favor of electing Sargsyan mayor, 10 others voted against it, and 3 ballots were declared invalid.

"Thus, it should be recorded that the draft decision to express no confidence in Yerevan Mayor Hayk Marutyan is getting a positive result. Congratulations, Mr. Sargsyan," said Marat Tokhyan, a member of the ruling majority "My Step" Faction, who was chairing the session.

This was followed by applause.

As reported earlier, the Yerevan municipal council convened a special session Wednesday—and with only one matter on the agenda: the draft decision of the Yerevan Council of Elders on expressing no confidence in Mayor Hayk Marutyan. Also, this draft proposed to elect Deputy Mayor Hrachya Sargsyan as the Mayor of Yerevan. The session was initially chaired by Marutyan.

The ruling majority "My Step" Faction of the Yerevan Council of Elders had collected signatures to express no confidence in Marutyan. This initiative was supported also by the members of the opposition “Prosperous Armenia” Faction and Ani Khachatryan from the opposition “Luys” Faction.

But several members of the "My Step" Faction had opposed this initiative and resigned from the Yerevan city council.