If an oppositional candidate assumes Yerevan mayor’s post, the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) would automatically become opposition and in that case it would be RPA’s right to oversee the mayor’s work by means of a control commission.

This is among the steps ARF is planning to take should they win the municipal ballot.

“The authorities would like an oppositional mayor to make mistakes. Obviously, an oppositional mayor would do his best to avoid mistakes, and the winners in that situation would be residents of Yerevan. We are going to consolidate all three levels of democracy in Armenia – representative, direct, and participatory democracy,” promises Rustamyan.  

ARF is planning on creating municipal police, which is not an idea RPA favors.  

Rustamyan does not want to indulge in fortune-telling and predict how many votes they might get as a result of the Sunday vote. He believes that those politicians who predict figures and percentage are lying. He says the most important thing right now is power turnover, rather than making up exaggerated figures, as President Serzh Sargsyan put it during the presidential race.

“At the moment the authorities and the opposition have equal chances at the polling stations. The authorities keep perfecting ballot-rigging mechanisms, the opposition unites for proper supervision, as they each keep their votes,” this is how the oppositional forces in Armenia are preparing for the forthcoming ballot, Rustamyan says.

He is convinced that the authorities, no matter what mechanisms they apply and what tricks they resort to, cannot win more than 50 percent of votes