Marutian will lead the list of candidates of the National Progress party, a hitherto little-known political party in Armenia, a spokesman for his campaign office told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Tuesday.
In a video address published later today Marutian said he will engage in the campaign together with his political team.
He said that his campaign is “short of money, relies on no oligarchs and has no media resources or administrative levers.”
“Our only wealth is you, the people of Yerevan, and we are convinced that the fate of our city cannot be decided by some incompetent and random people,” said Marutian, who supported then opposition leader Nikol Pashinian during the 2018 “Velvet Revolution” and was elected mayor of Yerevan as part of already Prime Minister Pashinian’s political team with an 80-percent vote later that year.
Marutian, who is also a popular comedian in Armenia, went on to criticize the government for the current state of affairs. “Are the processes in our country fair and transparent today? Is the management of the capital city effective and for the benefit of the people of Yerevan? Are the officials who once presented themselves as revolutionaries today have not started to act using old methods? Have we achieved what we stood up for as a nation in 2018? Of course not, so the struggle is not completed,” he said.
In December 2021, the ruling My Step faction in Yerevan’s Municipal Assembly passed a vote of no confidence in then mayor Marutian, declaring that he “had deviated from revolutionary values.” The pro-government faction also accused Marutian of having failed to fulfill the bloc’s election promises and carry out the mission of eliminating systemic corruption. It also said that he quit the ruling party and broke his connection with the ruling faction of the Municipal Assembly and the government.
While leaving his post Marutian, too, made a number of accusations against the ruling political team.
The vote in the elections to Yerevan’s Municipal Assembly is due on September 17. It will proceed according to party lists, with campaigns of political parties and blocs and their candidates for mayor beginning on August 23.
The ruling Civil Contract party is to be led in the elections by current Deputy Mayor Tigran Avinian who formerly also served as deputy prime minister in the Pashinian government.
Several other political parties and groups, notably Aprelu Yerkir (Country for Living), Bright Armenia, the Mother Armenia movement and others have also announced their bids to participate in the elections.
Political parties and bloc will have until August 13 to register for the elections.