Armenia’s Constitutional Court Was Unable to Elect a President

Armenia’s Constitutional Court

Armenia’s Constitutional Court was unable to elect a new president—chief justice–during its session on Wednesday on neither the first nor the second round of voting.

According to the Constitutional Court said that former Civil Contract lawmaker Vladimir Vartanyan and current court vice-president, Edgar Shatiryan, who is currently the acting president, were nominated, Azatutyun.am reported.

A candidate from among the members of the Constitutional Court can be elected President if they receive the votes of six Constitutional Court judges; if only one candidate is nominated, they are elected with five votes.

During the session, which lasted approximately five hours, no candidate received either six or five votes. The Constitutional Court has not specified how many votes each candidate received in the secret ballot.

According to the rules of procedure, if a President of the Constitutional Court is not elected, new elections are to be held within 10 days or no later than 30 days after the vote in the second round of the election.

The six-year term of the previous Constitutional Court President, Arman Dilanyan, expired on October 12. He will continue to serve as a judge for another four years but can no longer seek the position of Constitutional Court President.

Dilanyan was at a center of controversy following the June 7 parliamentary elections, when he was accused of siding with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and opting to not entertain challenges to election results put forth by opposition groups. The court finally ruled to uphold the results as announced by the Central Electoral Commission. Based on those results, the Prosperous Armenia Party, which had secured 3.99 percent of the votes, was barred from entering parliament, granting Pashinyan a majority.