Armenia's Constitutional Court rejects opposition bid to annul election results

Armenia court upholds election results

Armenia’s Constitutional Court has rejected petitions seeking to invalidate the results of the parliamentary elections held on June 7.

Seven political parties and alliances challenged the outcome. Although their complaints differed in some respects, the court consolidated them into a single case. Hearings began on June 26 and lasted six days, totaling around 50 hours.

Announcing the ruling on July 4, Constitutional Court Chairman Arman Dilanyan said:

“The Constitutional Court has decided to uphold the Central Election Commission’s June 14 decision on the results of the June 7 elections to the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia.”

The court has not yet published its legal reasoning. Aram Orbelyan, a lawyer representing the opposition Prosperous Armenia party, said the full text of the ruling would be released within three days, after which it could be assessed in detail.

“There is an option to appeal to international courts. Unfortunately, such an appeal will not change the election results. As for other legal options, we will discuss them and decide on our next steps once we receive the full ruling. There are several legal avenues, and we will decide whether to pursue them after consulting our client,” Orbelyan said.

The Constitutional Court’s ruling is final and took effect immediately upon its announcement.

Following the decision, five opposition parties issued a joint statement declaring the start of a new phase of “political resistance.”

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Opposition announces new phase of political resistance

Five opposition groups issued a joint statement immediately after the Constitutional Court’s ruling, declaring the start of a new phase of political resistance. The signatories included the Strong Armenia and Armenia alliances, the National Democratic Pole movement, and the Armenian National Congress and Prosperous Armenia parties.

“The Constitutional Court’s decision does not mark the end of the struggle, but the beginning of a new, more systematic, institutional and large-scale phase of political resistance,” the statement said.

The opposition said its joint agenda would focus on four priorities:

• Preventing amendments to Armenia’s Constitution, which it says are being imposed under pressure from Azerbaijan and would deal an “irreversible blow” to the country’s sovereignty;
• Defending the Armenian Apostolic Church, accusing Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of waging a campaign against the Church and the Catholicos of All Armenians;
• Protecting what it described as political prisoners, saying a new wave of political repression had begun after the elections; and
• Removing the current government, which it called an “imperative with no alternative.”

The opposition groups said they were continuing discussions on their next steps in all four areas.

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Who challenged the election results?

Seven political groups (all of them have a pro-Russian reputation) have announced the start of a new phase of “political resistance”filed petitions with the Constitutional Court:

• the Strong Armenia alliance;
• the Wings of Unity party;
• the Democracy, Law and Discipline party;
• the Prosperous Armenia party;
• the In the Name of the Republic – Alliance of Defenders of Democracy party;
• the Armenia alliance; and
• the New Force reformist party.

The Strong Armenia alliance asked the court to annul the election results and order a second round of voting. The Armenia alliance sought only to have the results invalidated.

Arman Babajanyan, leader of the In the Name of the Republic party, said his party’s petition differed from the others.

He argued that the key constitutional question was whether the election results could be considered a genuine expression of the people’s will when state authorities themselves had reported what they described as “organized, large-scale, repeated and interconnected crimes” during the campaign.

Babajanyan was referring to investigations by Armenia’s Anti-Corruption Committee into alleged vote-buying schemes involving several opposition groups, most of them linked to representatives and supporters of the Strong Armenia alliance.

“We are not asking the Constitutional Court to replace the criminal courts or determine who committed which crime. That is a matter for criminal justice. We are asking the Constitutional Court to do what only it can do: assess the constitutionality of the elections,” Babajanyan said.

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