Civilnet
Voters from 22 villages and towns in the Armenian provinces of Lori, Tavush and Syunik headed to the polls on May 17 to express their views on government plans for community enlargement. 16 of these villages voted in favor of enlargement and 6 voted against.
According to the Central Election Commission, which published the preliminary results, in Lori, 68 percent (or 1,007 people) of those who headed to the polls voted in favor of uniting their communities of Tumanyan, Mars, Karinj, Lorut, Shamut, Atan, and Ahnidzor into one big community to be called Tumanyan.
In Tavush, 73 percent (or 4,140 people) of those who voted in the referendum supported the unification of the communities of Dilijan, Haghartsin, Teghut, Gosh, Aghavnavank, Hachardzan, Hovk into one to be called Dilijan.
In Syunik, 94 percent (or 2,513 people), of those who headed to the polls voted in support of the unification of the communities of Shinuhayr, Tatev, Halidzor, Harzhis, Svarants, Khot, Tandzatap, Kashuni into one to be called Tatev.
The referendums were monitored by three local NGOs, the Election Systems Center, Goris Press Club and Liberalism and Democracy.
The government, who is in favor of the enlargement project, announced that it will take the results of the referendum into consideration even though they are not binding according to the Armenian Constitution.
Varazdat Karapetyan, President of the Regional Development Foundation, is critical of this project. “It is possible to deal with community development issues such as increasing the birth rate, providing housing and stimulating the economy, but this cannot be achieved through merging communities together,” he said.
Since 2006, the government has planned to enlarge communities and decrease the total number of communities in Armenia from 915 to 300. The government is convinced that by enlarging communities, it would be possible to achieve decentralization of governance and a more effective use of resources.
“There are more effective ways to reach a positive development outcome than merging communities together,” said Karapetyan.
Photo: http://reports.travel.ru
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