Civil Contract representatives have dismissed the allegations.
The controversy centers on recent infrastructure repairs in Vagharshapat and nearby villages carried out by the current authorities led by a Civil Contract mayor.
Sona Chatrian, an 87-year-old resident of the village of Voskehat, said the leaking roof of her nearly century-old building had been a persistent problem for decades, forcing her to collect rainwater in buckets. Repairs began just days before the November 16 vote, prompting opposition candidates to allege that the ruling party is using public funds for electoral gain.
“I am just happy my feet will stay dry and I can leave home without worry,” Chatrian said, expressing gratitude to the current mayor.
Sevak Khachatrian, a candidate from the opposition Haghtanak (Victory) alliance, questioned why residents’ infrastructure problems were not addressed earlier. He accused the ruling party of misusing state resources for election purposes, citing a last-minute allocation of 500 million drams (about $1.3 million) by the Ministry of Territorial Administration for urgent municipal projects.
Infrastructure work in nearby Etchmiadzin has also drawn attention. Roads in the Zvartnots neighborhood were resurfaced, and the Etchmiadzin-Yerevan highway was repaved just before the elections. Khachatrian questioned the timing of these projects, asking why they had not been completed earlier.
Argishti Mekhakian, the acting mayor and Civil Contract candidate in the Vagharshapat election, denied the allegations. “We would not postpone this work because of the elections,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
While election-monitoring organizations have noted concerns about the ruling party’s possible misuse of administrative resources, Mekhakian acknowledged that municipal improvement projects are often active during campaign periods. He emphasized that the projects had been planned earlier based on citizens’ requests and procurement procedures.
“If a street needs repaving, we cannot skip it just because it is an election period,” he said.
Other figures associated with the ruling party also defended preplanned projects. Anush Hambardzumian, principal of a school in the village of Geghakert, said her charitable work coinciding with the campaign period had been scheduled in advance. She was later detained and placed under house arrest after a criminal investigation was launched into her activities following media reports.
The election campaign in Vagharshapat is set to conclude on Friday, with voting scheduled for Sunday. Candidates from nine political parties and blocs are competing for the mayoral position.
Criminal cases were recently opened against two candidates from the opposition Mother Armenia party in connection with their previous activities in local government. The party’s leader, Andranik Tevanian, described the cases as an attempt to pressure the party ahead of the vote.
Also, Armenian law enforcement authorities on November 2 arrested the brother and nephew of Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II on suspicion of obstructing the election campaign of a pro-government party’s candidate in the Vagharshapat community. Critics of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian condemned the arrests, describing them as part of government pressure on the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church to resign.