Armenia’s Constitutional Court Upholds June 7 Election Results, Rejects Opposition Appeals

Armenia’s Constitutional Court on Thursday upheld the official results of the June 7 parliamentary elections, rejecting appeals filed by seven political forces that sought to overturn the vote.

The decision keeps in place the Central Election Commission’s final results and confirms the makeup of the country’s next parliament.

The appeals were filed by several opposition groups, including the Strong Armenia Alliance, the Armenia Alliance and the Prosperous Armenia Party, which narrowly failed to cross the 4% threshold required to enter parliament.

Justice Minister Srbuhi Galyan, who represented the ruling Civil Contract party as a third party in the case, welcomed the decision after the ruling was announced.

“Justice prevailed,” Galyan told Azatutyun.

Opposition representatives condemned the ruling, saying the court had ignored serious questions raised during several days of hearings.

Prosperous Armenia representative Aram Orbelyan said the court had a “historic opportunity” to annul the election results. He argued that the party’s absence from parliament was the result of decisions made by the Central Election Commission after results from two polling stations were invalidated.

Orbelyan said the evidence presented in court showed that Prosperous Armenia should have received seats in parliament. He accused the court of failing to stop what he called vote theft and said the CEC decision deprived voters of a parliament where the ruling party would have been forced to negotiate with the opposition on key decisions.

Aram Vardevanyan, representing the Strong Armenia Alliance, said the ruling showed that Armenia has a Constitution and a Constitutional Court, but not constitutional justice.

Asked whether he believed the court had faced political pressure, Vardevanyan said one judge’s questions appeared to reflect the language of the political authorities.

“I leave the conclusions to you,” he said.

Seven of the court’s nine judges took part in the case. Judges Vladimir Vardanyan and Artak Zeynalyan did not participate after the court ruled that their involvement was not possible because of concerns over bias toward the parties in the proceedings.

During the hearings, the opposition parties argued that the election should be declared invalid, citing alleged violations throughout the campaign and voting process, including abuse of administrative resources and vote-buying.

The Prosperous Armenia Party, led by businessman Gagik Tsarukyan, focused part of its appeal on the party’s failure to enter parliament. The CEC’s decision to invalidate the results of two precincts reduced the party’s vote total and left it below the 4% threshold.

CEC Chairman Vahagn Hovakimyan has said the recorded violations did not change the overall result.

The court also held part of the proceedings behind closed doors to review classified materials. Those materials included criminal cases opened against opposition figures during the campaign and questions related to the so-called secret voter list. A lawyer for the Armenia Alliance, led by former President Robert Kocharyan, said the issue concerned differences in the number of voters.

Hovakimyan told Azatutyun there was no such discrepancy.

In her closing remarks, Galyan said the applicants had not proved that the alleged violations took place or that they were serious enough to affect the outcome. Representatives of Civil Contract also accused the opposition of vote-buying during the campaign, while saying those alleged actions did not change the result.

Under the certified results, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party will hold 64 seats in the new National Assembly. The Strong Armenia Alliance will have 29 seats, while the Armenia Alliance will have 12.

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