A regular Cabinet meeting took place today, chaired by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Before starting the discussion of the issues on the agenda, the Prime Minister referred to the decisions on the appointment of local elections adopted by the written procedure on October 6. Nikol Pashinyan noted that the decisions were made yesterday due to the need to meet deadlines.

In particular, in a number of enlarged communities it is planned to hold Council of Elders elections by the proportional representation system on December 5.

Referring to the expected elections in enlarged communities by the proportional representation system, Nikol Pashinyan said, “This means that the voters will make a choice between the proportional lists submitted by the political forces, where the first number is logically assumed to be the candidate for the Mayor. But depending on the election results, a Mayor may be elected as a result of the voting, or it may also take place in the Council of Elders. And what is so special about it? In the past, mayoral elections were held according to the following principle: candidates were nominated, one of whom won, took over the management of the community, and the other candidates were left out of the community management process. Now, the winners will win, and those who did not get the votes needed to win the election will, by the logic of the local parliament of the community, be a member of the working council. We have that example in Yerevan, Vanadzor, Gyumri, and now it is expanding. I want to remind that this is also one of our political commitments assumed in 2018”.

The Head of the Government first of all wished the voters successful elections. “Our research shows that a number of problems in the local government system vanish when conscious elections take place in the communities. And the obligation of our political power is to fully ensure the free expression of the will of the voters, because in case of any election result, the voter must realize and record that it his decision, with all the positive consequences".

The Government made redistributions and amendments in the Law on the State Budget of the Republic of Armenia for 2021, and amendments to one of the previously adopted decisions aimed at allocating funding to the Ministry of Health. The adoption of the decision is conditioned by the current situation over coronavirus infection (COVID-19) in the country. According to the substantiation, in order to carry out the necessary measures for the rapid prevention, control, treatment and overcoming of coronavirus infection in the country, a necessity of allocating 2 billion 365 million AMD to the Ministry of Health from the Government reserve fund emerged.

Nikol Pashinyan expressed dissatisfaction with the indicators of vaccination, emphasizing the need to take appropriate measures to improve vaccination rates. The Prime Minister also instructed the National Security Service and the Police to take appropriate and strict measures to prevent cases of false vaccinations.

The Executive made a decision, which envisages allocating money to the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of the Republic of Armenia for holding the "Cup of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia" amateur cross-country running tournament. According to the substantiation, the holding of an amateur cross-country running tournament will give an opportunity to promote the participation of the population in mass sports events. It is planned to allocate 35 million AMD for the event, of which 15 million is the prize fund, the rest is for organizational issues. Any citizen who has a doctor's permit or a health certificate, as well as a contract of risk assessment and assumption posed by the participation in the tournament can participate in the tournament. The contract is available on the website of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports: https://escs.am/. The 10 km long tournament will be held on October 30 on the Yerevan-Echmiadzin highway (Echmiadzin region of Armavir Province).