Hayastani Hanrapetutyun

Headline: CEC starts registration of candidates (17.03.09)
Author: Alla Serobyan
On March 17 Central Electoral Commission (CEC) announced the start of nomination of party and bloc lists for Yerevan Municipal Elections. The deadline for submitting necessary documents is March 22, 18:00. Some political forces already announced the names of candidates who would lead their list, though the author mentions that lists are not final. As it is known, the Republican Party list will lead Gagik Beglaryan, Prosperous Armenia list is leading Haroutyun Kushkyan, the minister of healthcare.
After long negotiations Armenian National Congress (ANC) made a decision that Levon Ter-Petrosyan, the first RA President will be at the top of the electoral roll in the May 31 Yerevan council members’ elections. The second in ANC list is Stepan Demirchyan (People’s Party of Armenia (HZhK). Heritage party was for joining the ANC election list, but still has not announced its final decision. ARF member Ruben Margaryan announced, that the possible candidate to lead the party list is Artsvik Minasyan. Tigran Karapetyan (People’s Party) will also participate in election and he will be the first in the list. The Head of Orinats Yerkir party NA faction Heghine Bisharyan announced that the party have not decided on the candidate yet and will announce its decision only on March 21.
According to the RA law on Yerevan Municipal Elections, Yerevan council will consist of 65 members. According to law the council member mandates are distributed between parties and blocs, that will receive at least 7 percent (parties) and 9 percent (alliances) of all votes. The party or alliance winning more than 50 percent of the vote in the elections would gain the majority of the 65 council seats and be able to single-handedly name the Armenian capital’s next mayor.

Azg

On March 19, the newspaper stated that CEC press secretary Tatevik Ohanyan informed that no political force had submitted necessary documents for registration yet and added that the deadline for submission is March 22, 18:00.

Aravot

Headline:  “Heritage and HAK failed to come to an agreement”(17.03.09)
Author: A. Israelyan
The only opposition party represented in Armenia’s parliament will not join forces with former President Levon Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National Congress (HAK) to contest the upcoming mayoral elections in Yerevan. The two opposition forces failed to agree on who should lead their would-be list of candidates to a municipal council that will choose the Armenian capital’s next mayor. The HAK nominated Ter-Petrosian’s candidacy, while Zharangutyun insisted that the list should be topped by Armen Maritorsian, its young parliamentary leader. According to Zharangutyun spokesperson Hovsep Khurshudian, “Unfortunately, Zharangutyun’s and the HAK’s views on the list of the candidates did not converge. The HAK did not accept a version proposed by Zharangutyun, as a result of which we can conclude that the negotiations on a joint list ended in failure.”

Headline: Heritage Party still has not the list (18.03.09)
Author: Yesayan M.
To the journalist’s question with what party list Heritage party is going to participate in the upcoming election, Armen Martirosyan, head of Heritage faction, answered that they have not the list and do not know who will be at the top of the list. And he added that the list could be more competitive if the oppositional forces participate in elections with a joint list, but unfortunately they have different vision of a competitive election roll.

Headline: Communist Party of Armenia will not participate (20.30.09)
Author: Nelli Grigoryan
Communist Party decided not to participate in the upcoming municipal elections, and calls their constituency to follow their example arguing that starting from 1990 all elections held in Armenia were fraudulent and that these elections are not going to be an exception.