Election violations became a topic of discussion on the third day of the hearing of the Armenian opposition's lawsuits.
The head of the Central Election Commission of Armenia answers questions from representatives of the political forces that appealed the election results, violations, and their interpretation at a Constitutional Court hearing. The Central Election Commission proposed that the court reject all applications demanding a review of the election results or a new vote.
As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," seven parties appealed the final decision of the Central Election Commission on the parliamentary elections to the Constitutional Court. The court has consolidated all complaints into a single proceeding. It will announce its decision no later than July 4. The New Force party stated that it will not participate in the consideration of political parties' lawsuits challenging the election results in the Constitutional Court of Armenia. Prosperous Armenia, which, according to the Central Election Commission, failed to clear the 4% threshold, demanded a change to the vote-counting mechanism on the second day of its session.
The statements were filed by the Strong Armenia and Armenia blocs, the Wings of Unity, Democracy, Law, and Discipline, Prosperous Armenia, and New Force parties, as well as the Alliance of Democracy Defenders for the Republic bloc. They are challenging the June 14 Central Election Commission's decision on the results of the National Assembly elections, according to which the Civil Contract party received 61 seats in parliament, the Strong Armenia bloc 28 seats, and the Armenia bloc 12 seats. Taking into account the mandates of national minorities, the Civil Contract party has 64 mandates, while Karapetyan's bloc has 29.
At several polling stations, there were more ballots in the ballot box than there were participants. This was stated by Aram Orbelyan, a representative of the Prosperous Armenia party, at a Constitutional Court hearing on the political forces' lawsuit demanding the annulment of the June 7 election results.
A lawyer suggested that CEC representatives obtain data for some polling stations by simply adding up the "yes" votes and the invalid ballots. The figures in the commission protocols differ from the CEC figures, naturally to the detriment of certain political forces. Orbelyan recalled that the heads of the commissions at the polling stations where violations occurred, such as soldiers voting well after the scheduled closing time, were representatives of the Civil Contract party. Based on this violation, the Central Election Commission invalidated the results at two polling stations, thereby depriving Prosperous Armenia of the votes needed to pass the threshold, News.Am reports.
The violations committed by the Civil Contract party during the elections had a significant impact on the voting results, stated Aram Vardevanyan, a representative of the Strong Armenia bloc.
He stated that during the previous Constitutional Court hearing, the party's representatives did not mention any violations during the elections that affected the voting results. Vardevanyan emphasized that it was the Civil Contract party that committed the violations that impacted the election results. "These violations, whether the abuse of administrative resources or the spread of hate speech, had a significant impact on the election results," Armenia Today quoted him as saying. The lack of video feeds from polling stations with fewer than 300 voters was due to "technical difficulties" due to the fact that some of these polling stations were located in high-mountain areas, Central Election Commission Head Vahagn Hovakimyan said during a Constitutional Court hearing. He estimated that the number of voters at such polling stations constituted approximately 1.5% of the total electorate. The head of the Central Electoral Commission also explained that, in order to ensure broadcast coverage from approximately 200 polling stations with the specified number of voters, the commission should have requested approximately the same amount of funds as had already been used to organize video broadcasts at the remaining polling stations.
As a defendant, the Central Electoral Commission is asking the Constitutional Court to completely dismiss all seven submitted applications, Hovakimyan stated.
"The contested decision of the Central Electoral Commission is legal and was adopted in compliance with the requirements of the Electoral Code of the Republic of Armenia. In this regard, we ask that all applications be dismissed," Aysor.Am quotes him as saying.
The parliamentary elections have effectively become a referendum on the future of the current government and Armenia's foreign policy course. The "Caucasian Knot" published a report entitled "2026 Elections to the National Assembly (Parliament) of Armenia". Analysts have named the Prosperous Armenia party of oligarch Gagik Tsarukyan, the Armenia bloc of former president Robert Kocharyan, and the Strong Armenia bloc of businessman Samvel Karapetyan as the most pro-Russian forces among the election participants.