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Deputy Mayor of Yerevan Tigran Avinyan is using administrative resources, Varuzhan Hoktanyan, programs director at the Transparency International's Armenian affiliate, the Anti-Corruption Center (ACC), told Pastinfo on Monday, referring to Avinyan’s recent activity in his new capacity as deputy mayor.

The next Yerevan mayoral elections are scheduled for the fall of 2023. However, Avinyan has already started touring various districts of the Armenian capital, where he holds meetings with local residents, visits kindergartens and makes promises, effectively engaging in an electoral campaign using his post.

Avinyan confirmed plans to top the ruling Civil Contract party’s electoral list in the mayoral elections next year shortly before being installed as the deputy Yerevan mayor in September. The Yerevan Municipality “is more actively converting his activity than those of the incumbent mayor”, Pastinfo says

"In this case, I think it amounts to use of administrative resources, which is a common practice in all countries around the world, including in the most democratic states. We could tell whether it was good or bad if other forces would not use it,” Hoktanyan said, stressing the need to consider the impact of the particular aspect of this activity on elections.

He claims misuse of administrative resources is narrowly linked to an election period in Armenia after the CEC unveils the election dates. Hoktanyan says Avinyan’s activities qualify as use of administrative resources, which is not a new phenomenon in Armenia.

Hoktanyan called the appointment of Vahagn Hovakimyan, a former pro-government MP and reporter who worked for a daily owned by Nikol Pashinyan's family, as new chairman of the Central Electoral Commission a “misuse of legislative resources”, adding the Anti-Corruption Center was among the NGOs that condemned it.

"There are several types of misuse of administrative resources: misuse of police resources, misuse of electoral and legislative resources, procedural misuse in the application of legislative and sub-legislative acts. The appointment of Vahagn Hovakimyan as the CEC chairman is fraught with more serious consequences in terms of misuse of administrative resources. I would qualify Avinyan’s activity as use of administrative resources, which is an accepted practice. It would amount to an abuse if he had mobilized his supporters through pressure on the directors of schools and clinics in Yerevan and by other means," he explained.

"Tigran Avinyan currently holds the post of deputy mayor, which entitles him to meet with Yerevan residents. Naturally, this is not very welcome when it comes to ethics, but it is accepted worldwide, Whereas, Vahagn Hovakimyan's appointment is a misuse of administrative resources, because the Central Electoral Commission is headed by a man who was a member of the [Civil Contract] party until recently. The bad thing is that all the negative practices observed in the past continue. Nothing has changed; the events in April-May 2018 implied the complete elimination of such practices, but it is not done," Hoktanyan concluded.