Our City bloc to back Vardan Ghukasyan for Gyumri mayor

Martun Grigoryan, whose Our City bloc won 15.8% of the vote in Sunday’s municipal elections in Gyumri, Armenia’s second-largest city, has decided to support Communist Party leader Vardan Ghukasyan for the city's mayor.

Two other opposition candidates, Ruben Mkhitaryan of the My Strong Community party and Karen Simonyan of the Mother Armenia alliance, announced their support for Ghukasyan immediately after the elections.

"The Our City bloc declares that it will provide the necessary votes for Vardan Ghukasyan, a candidate backed by the other two forces, without expecting positions or favors,” Grigoryan said in a statement on Friday.

The results of the March 30 Gyumri municipal elections revealed the following distribution of seats in the municipal council:

• Civil Contract party – 14 seats

• Armenian Communist Party – 8 seats

• Our City bloc – 6 seats

• My Strong Community party – 3 seats

• Mother Armenia alliance – 2 seats