RFE/RL carries more details on the shooting of the head of the local electricity in Nor Hajn by the town’s Mayor, Armen Kelishyan. With the economy in the republic controlled by clans headed or supported by senior officials, tension in the run-up to October’s local elections appears to be one reason for the murder. Interestingly, according to this report, the Mayor was accompanied by local police when he shot and killed Ashot Mkhitaryan.

An aide to the regional prosecutor told RFE/RL that the shooting occurred in Nor Hajn on Saturday morning while Mayor Armen Keshishian was attempting to stop “illegal construction” financed by the victim, Armen Mkhitarian. The official said Mkhitarian, who runs the local branch of Armenia’s national electricity utility, quarreled and exchanged bitter insults with Keshishian before being gunned down.

According to local residents, Mkhitarian was building a playground for children without Keshishian’s permission — a fact which allegedly infuriated the latter. Witnesses say the mayor arrived at the construction site with two police officers. It is not clear why they failed to prevent the gunshots.

The incident took place just two weeks before the election of Nor Hajn’s mayor. Keshishian, who is seeking reelection, is challenged by a single candidate who was reportedly backed by the murdered man. Mkhitarian was known to the locals as a figure close to one of Armenia’s most powerful “oligarchs,” Gagik Tsarukian. The arrested mayor, for his part, has been backed until now by Prime Minister Andranik Markarian’s Republican Party.

Although the local elections held this weekend in Yerevan passed peacefully, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation - Dashnaktsutyun, a junior member of the ruling three party coalition government warned in February that local elections planned for the rest of the country could end in bloodshed. Well, in a sense, they were wrong. The blood has already started to flow.