Constitutional Court Will Hear Opposition Election Dispute Petitions

A vote is being cast in the June 7 Armenian parliamentary elections

Armenia’s Constitutional Court on Sunday announced that it will convene a hearing on June 26 to review the petitions of seven political forces that are disputing the result of the June 7 Parliamentary Elections.

On Friday, six opposition groups and one pro-government party petitioned the Constitutional Court on Friday to invalidate the official results of the June 7 parliamentary elections that gave victory to the ruling Civil Contract party.

In their separate appeals, they all alleged serious fraud which they said influenced the election outcome.

The three main opposition contenders—the Strong Armenia Alliance, the Armenia Alliance and the Prosperous Party of Armenia—accused election officials of miscounting many ballots and claimed that the authorities forced many public sector employees and security personnel to vote for Civil Contract. They also pointed to mass arrests of their members and supporters, which continued on Election Day.

The other parties that submitted separate appeals were the Wings of Unity party; the Democracy, Law, Discipline party; Alliance of Defenders of Democracy for the Republic party; and the “New Power” Reformist Party.

Considering that the aforementioned cases concern the same matter, in accordance with the law on the Constitutional Court of Armenia, these cases have been joined and will be examined at the same court session, which will take place on June 26.

For this hearing, the Constitutional Court has requested that the Central Election Commission to submit the decision adopted on the election results, the minutes on the voting results, court rulings, decisions adopted as a result of the consideration of applications (complaints) received by the election commissions, decisions of territorial election commissions on violations recorded on voting day in the registers of precinct election commissions, and decisions adopted on the voting results.

In addition, the Court also has requested the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Anti-Corruption Commission, the Investigative Committee, the Internal Affairs Ministry and the Television and Radio Commission to submit information on any election-related matters.

The court also decided that the ruling Civil Contract party will act as a third party in these proceedings.

Attorney Hovhannes Khudoyan, who represents the Armenian Alliance in the Constitutional Court, told Azatutyun.am that an application will be filed with a higher court to have Judge Seda Safaryan’s participation in the trial be inadmissible, on the grounds of bias.

Safaryan was included in the list of the “Alliance of Democrats” in the 2021 parliamentary elections.

Arman Babajanyan’s “For the Republic” party is also appealing the election results in the Constitutional Court, and in 2021 Babajanyan was in the same alliance with Safaryan.

Earlier on Monday the Constitutional Court decided that justices Vladimir Vardanyan and Artak Zeynalyan will not participate in the hearing, since they “have biases” toward the parties to the trial.

Vardanyan was transferred to the Constitutional Court from the parliament where he was a representative of the “Civil Contract” faction, and Artak Zeynalyan, before being elected judge, was a member of Aram Sargsyan’s “Republic” party, which holds seats in the Yerevan City Council.

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