Asbarez: Constitutional Court Rejects Opposition Appeals, Upholds Election Res

Chief Justice Dilanyan reads the Constitutional Court’s ruling on Jul. 4 (Video screen grab)

Armenia’s Constitutional Court on Saturday upheld the results of the June 7 Parliamentary Elections by rejecting the appeals filed by seven political forces that sought to challenge the results of the elections.

The ruling was announced by Chief Justice Arman Dilanyan, who oversaw the week-long hearings into opposition appeals.

The appeals were brought separately by the Strong Armenia and Armenia alliances, as well as the Prosperous Armenia, the Wings of Unity, Democracy, Law, Discipline, Union of Defenders of Democracy for the Republic, and New Force parties. The New Force party later withdrew from the proceedings.

The defendants were the Central Election Commission, while the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Prosecutor General’s Office, and the Anti-Corruption Committee participated as co-defendants. The Civil Contract party took part in the proceedings as a third party. Hearings before the Constitutional Court began on June 26.

The ruling leaves the June 7 election results unchanged.

According to the Central Election Commission, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s Cilvil Contract Party won the June 7 elections with 49.8 percent of the vote. Strong Armenia came in second with 23.3 percent, followed by former president Robert Kocharian’s Hayastan alliance (almost 10 percent). Businessman Gagik Tsarukyan’s Prosperous Armenia Party did not secure the necessary votes to enter parliament.

The CEC awarded most of the parliament seats claimed by the Prosperous Armenia Party to Civil Contract. This enabled the ruling party to have a 60 percent parliamentary majority required for enacting key laws and installing senior law-enforcement officials and judges. However, Pashinyan’s party was unable to secure a two-thirds majority needed for passing key legislation, including amendments to Armenia’s Constitution.

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