The standoff between two officials in Vanadzor has been in the center of public attention for several months but now it is the court to deicide whose arguments are more persuasive.

On July 12, 2007, examining the application of Arthur Sakunts and others on disputing how constitutional the second part of article 5 of RA law “On Local Referendum” was, the Constitutional court decided to take the application for examination and prepare a case recognizing RA National Assembly as a responding side.

On April 3, for the second time, the regional electoral commission #30 rejected the registration of the initiative group that intends to hold local referendum “On impeaching Samvel Darbinyan, the mayor of Vanadzor.”
This time the members of the initiative group were present at the session of the regional electoral commission #30.

On March 28th the court of first instance of Lori region partially upheld the claim of the group initiating local referendum against Regional Electoral Commissions #30 on obliging to make a decision on registering the initiative group.

Six citizens of Vanadzor wanted to impeach the mayor of Vanadzor. In February, citizens who are dissatisfied with the work of Samvel Darbinyan, mayor of Vanadzor formed an initiative group and decided to hold a referendum on impeaching the mayor of Vanadzor. Before realizing their intention on March 14th, the group submitted an application for registration to the commission of regional commission #30.

In February 2007, the citizens of Vanadzor formed an initiative group with the aim of holding a referendum on impeaching the mayor of Vanadzor. During its first meeting, on February 10th, 2007, the initiative group decided to initiate a local referendum “On presenting a proposal to Lori governor on dismissing Samvel Darbinyan, the mayor of Vanadzor.”