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Margaryan reelected as Yerevan mayor

Taron Margaryan, 35, has been reelected the mayor of Yerevan

YEREVAN, June 8 (Itar-Tass) - Taron Margaryan, 35, has been reelected the mayor of Yerevan.

In the May 5 municipal elections, more than half of votes were cast for the Republican Party of Armenia. The City Council is elected by the proportional multi-party system and the top candidate in a party’s election list becomes the mayor of Yerevan.

Margaryan is to be sworn in on June 11. He has been holding this post since November 2011. The son of former dissident and ex-prime minister Andranik Margaryan (1951-2007), he will retain this position for four more years.

Three political forces are represented in Yerevan’s City Council. In addition to the ruling Republican Party of Armenia, there are also the centre-right Prosperous Armenia party led by businessman Gagik Tsarukyan (17 seats) and an opposition bloc rallying around former Foreign Minister Raffi Ovanesyan, the leader of the Heritage party (6 seats). The latter was President Serzh Sargsyan’s competitor in the presidential election of February 18 and lost but insists he won.

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