2018 Yerevan City Council election
Yerevan City Council elections were held on 23 September 2018. The snap election was trigged after the resignation of former mayor Taron Margaryan amid the aftermath of the 2018 Armenian Velvet Revolution. Well-known comedian and actor Hayk Marutyan, heading the electoral list of the My Step Alliance, was elected to the office of mayor of Yerevan. Candidates. 979 candidates competed for 65 open seats in the Yerevan city council (also known as the "council of elders"). A total of 12 parties/alliances participated in the election (numbered below according to the electoral ballot listing ): A pre-election analysis of the top 10 lists from each party or alliance revealed that: Electoral code and voter data. According to official data there were 848,343 eligible voters. Foreign citizens living in Yerevan could cast their ballots if they had at least a one-year registration before voting day. The electoral code defines one vote per voter and a threshold of 6 percent of cast ballots for parties (50,900 votes at 100% turnout) and 8 percent for alliances (67,867 at 100% turnout), surpassing which is required for consideration during mandate allocations. Only if less than 3 parties/alliances  pass the threshold, would all three best performing parties/alliances be allocated mandates. A “bonus” to the political force that wins at least 40 percent of the council seats will allow it to occupy majority of the seats and appoint the new mayor of Yerevan. Mandates will be allocated according to proportional representation principle, while regarding Yerevan as one multi-mandate electoral district. Election observation. Only one international organization, the International Expert Center for Electoral Systems (ICES) was registered for monitoring the election. While 662 observers from 8 local organizations and 598 representatives of 49 media outlets participated. Ten of  the representatives were from 5 foreign media outlets. Electoral fraud prevention and counteraction. Ahead of the September 23 election, in the second and final reading, the Armenian Parliament unanimously ratified a bill criminalizing electoral fraud. The amendments to Armenia’s Criminal Code make electoral fraud punishable by imprisonment whereas before, individuals charged with vote buying or selling were simply fined. Police established a telephone hot line which was used to report electoral fraud on election day. Anonymity of those who report corruption cases will be guaranteed. Election campaign. The campaign was marked by bitter accusations by leading candidates. Prime Minister  of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, said the elections will be between "bright" and "dark" forces. After some candidates called for public debates and expressed their participation willingness, a debate was scheduled to be broadcast on public TV on the last campaign day, September 21 at 22:25 - just 95 minutes before "silence day" begins. The debate was recorded in advance, rather than broadcast live. For this reason, only one candidate, Naira Zohrabyan, representing Prosperous Armenia had declined participation and called for a live debate, while ten candidates confirmed their participation. If broadcast shall indeed end before midnight, assuming equal speaking time distribution  to the candidates and taking into amount some time for moderation, it was expected that speaking time per candidate would amount to only about 7 (+-2) minutes. Opinion polls. On September 11, Gallup International published an opinion poll survey. According to the poll: If these numbers held, only the top 3 parties/alliances (My Step, Prosperous Armenia, and Bright Alliance) would make it into city council, according to the rule of passing the electoral threshold and requiring a minimum of 3 parties/alliances to be represented in council. Results. The My Step Alliance won a landslide victory in the  Yerevan City Council elections, according to preliminary data. ! | Total ! | Electorate and turnout: Well-known comedian and actor Hayk Marutyan, who heads the electoral list of the My Step Alliance, became the next mayor of Yerevan as the My Step Alliance garnered more than 50 percent of mandates, and according to law, the person who heads the electoral list of the winning political force is considered mayor-elect. Hayk Marutyan assumed office on 10 October 2018. He is elected for a term of 4 years.