Onik Akhverdyan elected new mayor of Armenia's Parakar

Onik Akhverdyan of the Unity alliance was elected new mayor of Parakar, a community near Yerevan, at a special municipal council meeting on Tuesday.

He is replacing Valodya Grigoryan, who was killed outside his home on September 23.

The two other Parakar City Council factions, Civil Contract and National Progress, boycotted the vote.

Holding a majority in the 21-member council, Unity secured Akhverdyan's election with 12 votes. The councilors took a moment of silence to pay tribute to the slain mayor at the start of the meeting. He had been elected Parakar's leader in the March 30 snap elections, heading the Unity bloc formed by the Country to Live and Victory parties. The bloc had won 6,508 votes, about 57% of the total.