Local self-government elections: women in Sarigyugh and Chkalov get the most votes

The Central Election Commission released the preliminary results of  local elections held on Sunday, September 29^th.

It should be reminded that 99 candidates were running in the regular and snap elections of the Council of Elders in 7 communities, 12 of whom are women. Seven of the women fought in Artashat, 3 in Sarigyugh and 2 in Chkalov. There were no female candidates for community leader.

Female candidates in Sarigyugh community of Tavush region have higher results. In particular, Karine Asatryan received the largest number of votes, 83 fellow villagers voted for her, and Louisa Revazyan came in second with 75 votes. Another female candidate, Ofelia Revazyan, had 34 votes, which is not enough to be included in the council. 498 voters participated in the voting, 9 ballots were declared invalid.

Former council member Hasmik Kochinyan, who is also the wife of the incumbent mayor, received the highest number of votes among the 8 candidates in the Chkalov village of Lori province. She received 20 votes out of 81 residents who participated in voting.. Another female candidate, Manushak Kocharyan, received only one vote. Ashot Mkhitaryan, one of the male candidates, also received one vote. It can be stated that there will be one woman in the newly elected council.

The struggle in Artashat was fierce, with many candidates and voters. 21 717 voters took part in the voting, 197 ballots were declared invalid. Valid votes were distributed among 48 candidates. Note that seven of the candidates are women. According to the preliminary data, the provisional election threshold was 201 votes. None of the women were able to overcome that threshold, but they received quite many votes.

Votes received by women, according to CEC data:

Non-party, self-nominated Nelly Aloyan – 185 votes

PAP member Anna Galstyan – 180 votes

Non-party, self-nominated, principal of Artashat N1 primary school Tina Margaryan – 31 votes

Non-party, self-nominated, Director of “Robada” LLC Karine Mikayelyan -142 votes

Non-party, self-nominated, former council member Heriknaz Nazaryan -92 votes

Non-party, self-nominated, Artashat High School teacher Armine Sargsyan -86 votes

Araksya Stepanyan – 70 votes is a member of “For Social Justice” party.

The Artashat City Council is made up of 15 members; according to preliminary data, there will be no women in the newly elected council. There were two women in the former council of elders: Nazaryan Heriknaz and Hayrapetyan Ruzan.