Hayk Marutyan ousted as Yerevan City Council member
The Yerevan City Council on Wednesday voted to oust Hayk Marutyan, a councillor of the National Progress faction, for "unexcused absences" from its sessions.
34 municipal council members backed his ouster initiated by the ruling Civil Contract faction.
Marutyan rejected the accusations as politically motivated.
The former Yerevan mayor reiterated his criticism of the City Council's move to hike the annual car parking fees in central Yerevan from 12,000 drams to 160,000 drams from January 1, stressing the measure had not helped reduce mounting traffic congestion in the Kentron district.
"To be quite specific, this is a plunder. Moreover, this decision does not apply to the rich. They will be able to pay any fee, whether it is 300,000 drams or 500,000 drams. This decision has affected the middle class and people with social problems," he told reporters.
Opposition Mother Armenian faction members Narine Hayrapetyan and Sona Aghekyan were also stripped of their seats in the Yerevan City Council.