Although he was originally placed on the election list of "Bat'kivshchina" for the October 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary elections the Central Election Commission of Ukraine (CEC) excluded him from this list because Arutyunov had not give consent for entry on the list and had not submit documents to the CEC.[6][7] In September 2012 he was dismissed as chairman of the Donetsk regional party organization "due to passive participation in the election campaign in 2012" (he had held this position since 2010).[1][5]