While the country is gearing up for parliamentary elections in a week, everyone seems to have forgotten that on May 14, Yerevan City Council (Council of Aldermen) elections will be held. Considering that Yerevan is the capital of Armenia and the largest city, the political party that has control of City Council wields substantial influence.

During the previous Yerevan City Council elections (May 2013), the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) won 56 percent of the votes; Prosperous Armenia 23 percent and Barev Yerevan Bloc won 8 percent. The current mayor of Yerevan is RPA member Taron Margaryan, who by the way is number two on the party's national electoral list for the April 2 parliamentary election.

Some facts to put this forgotten municipal election into context.

There are 2,564,334 registered voters across Armenia. In Yerevan alone, there are 841,973 registered voters, approximately 35 percent of the entire electorate.

According to the Yerevan Municipality’s official website, the capital city is Armenia’s largest financial, scientific and cultural center and a major regional transportation hub. It accounts for 42.1 percent of the country’s GDP and has 1,076,500 residents. (The second largest city, Gyumri, has approximately 100,000 residents). Yerevan has a diversified economy, from agricultural processing to Information Technologies. It accounts for 53.9 percent of the construction sector, 82.6 percent of retail trade, 85.5 percent of services, 77.6 percent of residential buildings, and 33.2 percent of the hotel industry.

Yerevan Municipality’s annual budget for 2017 is just over 185 million USD.