Local Elections: Only three women are nominated for the mayor’s post

The nomination of the mayor candidates for the next local elections scheduled for November 5 has expired on October 6 at 18:00.

The information published on the official website of the Central Electoral Commission does not provide any grounds for optimism in several respects.

First of all, these elections can be considered non-competitive in the political sense, and the majority of the community members are nominated for being elected. There are few political forces participating in the elections, only the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) has nominated candidates in the majority of the communities. The Prosperous Armenia Party has nominated candidates in six communities, among them there are no women.

From the point of view of the gender balance of candidates, these elections are distinguished by the passive participation of women. Let us remind that they will elect the mayor in 52 communities. In Artashat and Goris, extreme elections are scheduled, according to which the nominations will start on October 11 and will be handled four days later.

While the CEC will summarize the numerical data on the nominations for the next local elections, WomenNet.am calculated that only three of the 142 mayors are female.

They are nominated in Geghamasar, Geghakar communities of Gegharkunik province and Odzun community of Lori province. This time, women have not been nominated in any city. The passivity of women candidates can be explained by the enlargement of communities.

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