Political forces vying for votes in the June 20 snap parliamentary elections have appealed to the Constitutional Court to annul the election results, claiming that the vote was fraudulent.
The Armenia Alliance, led by former president Robert Kocharian, the “I Have Honor” alliance led by former president Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia and former national security advisor Artur Vanetsyan’s Homeland Party were joined by the Zartonk and Armenian Fatherland parties in submitting separate appeals to the Constitutional Court on Friday.
Last week, Armenia’s Central Electoral Commission ratified the June 20 elections results, according which acting prime minister Nikol Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party received received 53.91 percent of the votes, while the Armenian and the I Have Honor alliances received 21.09 percent and 5.22 percent of the votes respectively.
Based on the results and a complex formula, the Civil Contract party will hold 71 seats in parliament. The Armenia Alliance will have 29 seat, while the I Have Honor Alliance will hold seven seats.
According to Armenia’s law, the Constitutional Court must examine the appeals and rule on them within the next 15 days. In the event that it moves to annul the official results, the court could order new elections or a second round of voting. It could also change the distribution of the new parliament’s 107 seats determined by the CEC.
In case of agreeing to annul the official results, the court could order the holding of new elections or a second round of voting or change the CEC’s distribution of the new parliament’s 107 seats.
“We submitted a 12-point motion to the Constitutional Court, with a detailed analysis of 109 polling stations, documentary evidence. This will be the first such dispute considered in the Constitutional Court after the adoption of amendments to the law on the Constitutional Court in 2018,” Aram Vardevanyan, a representative of the Armenia Alliance at a press conference on Friday.
Vardevanyan also said that the Armenian Alliance’s appeal to the court includes video material and documentary evidence of fraud in official results from 109 precincts where 88,000 Armenians cast ballots on election day. He said the bloc also found discrepancies in documents used during voting in three dozen other precincts.
Vardevanyan also demanded that one of the Constitutional Court judges, Vahe Grigoryan, recuse himself from the case, saying Grigoryan cannot be impartial because he represented relatives of protesters killed on March 1, 2008 during Kocharian’s trial.