Constitutional Court begins hearing of challenges to parliamentary election results

The Constitutional Court on Friday launched its hearing of the challenges filed by several parties to the June 7 parliamentary election results.

The motions to annul the election results, citing alleged fraud, were filed by the Strong Armenia bloc, Wings of Unity party, Democracy, Law and Order party, Prosperous Armenia party, the Rally for the Republic party, the Armenia Alliance, and the New Power Reformist Party.

The Constitutional Court is holding a single hearing on all motions.

Justice Edgar Shatiryan has been appointed as the rapporteur in the case.

The Constitutional Court has also decided to involve the “Civil Contract” party in the case as a third party.

The Constitutional Court has further ruled to include the Central Electoral Commission as a respondent, and the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the Anti-Corruption Committee of Armenia as co-respondents.

While reviewing the motion filed by the New Power party, the court earlier ruled that Justices Artak Zeynalyan and Vladimir Vardanyan should be recused and will not take part in the examination of the case, as they “have a biased attitude toward a party to the proceedings, its representative, and other participants in the proceedings.”

Only three political forces entered parliament in the June 7 elections, according to the Central Electoral Commission’s final results.

According to the commission, the Civil Contract party won 49.7% of the vote, securing a majority in the next parliament, while the Strong Armenia bloc came in second with 23.2%. The Armenia Alliance won 9.9%.