Lawyer insists there are sufficient grounds to overturn Armenia election results

Panorama, Armenia

There are sufficient grounds to overturn the official results of last month’s snap parliamentary elections in Armenia, lawyer, opposition Armenia bloc member Aram Vardevanyan insisted on Saturday.

Speaking at the Constitutional Court, he highlighted the outcome of the case as an important precedent in resolving the future electoral disputes.

“Yes, we insist that there are enough grounds for invalidating the election results. They are conditioned by the quantitative and qualitative electoral violations that we have outlined,” the lawyer said.

He pointed to a number of violations recorded by the Armenia bloc proxies on the election day, including those related to the voting of servicemen and invalid passports.

The lawyer asked the court to either announce runoff elections or provide a new procedure for the distribution of parliamentary mandates if the elections results are declared invalid.

The Constitutional Court opened hearings on the opposition demands to scrap the election results on Friday. It received separate appeals from the opposition Armenia bloc, I’m Honored bloc, Zartonk (Awakening) National Christian Party and Hayots Hayrenik (Armenian Homeland) Party last week and decided to examine them in a joint case. 

Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS