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CONSTITUTIONAL COURT PROCEEDS WITH ELECTION APPEAL HEARING
By Karine Kalantarian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
June 4 2007
Armenia's Constitutional Court on Monday continued hearings on appeals
of several opposition groups against the official results of the May
12 parliamentary elections.
Four groups, including the Republic (Hanrapetutyun) and New Times
parties, and the Impeachment bloc, as well as ex-parliament speaker
Artur Baghdasarian's Orinats Yerkir party have wrapped up the
presentation of evidence of what they claim to have been large-scale
fraud committed during the elections.
The three radical opposition groups pushing for an immediate power
change in the country are demanding that the court invalidate the
official figures of last month's elections and order a rerun of voting
under the system of proportional representation. And Orinats Yerkir,
the only of the four that managed to clear the five percent hurdle
to enter the new legislature, is seeking a recount of ballots in some
200 polling stations across the country.
Speaking in court on June 4, an Impeachment bloc representative
claimed large-scale violations throughout the election period. Nikol
Pashinian qualified the actions of the Republican Party of Armenia
(HHK) and the Prosperous Armenia party (BHK), which shared between
themselves a total of about 48 percent of the vote, as stepping out
of the boundaries of constitutionality to reduce the May 12 vote to
"something not foreseen by the constitution and laws."
In his speech, the Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper's editor-in-chief
tried to substantiate his claims that the electoral violations were
of a wholesale, organized and continual nature, making a reference
to the mechanism of non-existing voters that he alleged had been
widely used during last month's vote as well as challenging the
authorities' decision to deprive citizens of Armenia living abroad
of the opportunity to vote.
Pashinian was several times warned by the Constitutional Court chairman
to avoid political statements in his remarks and keep to the legal
aspect of the matter.
CEC Chairman Garegin Azarian, who represents the respondent's side,
replied to all accusations of fraud and electoral violations. He
described the "judgments" of the claimants as "subjective, based on
arbitrary interpretation of the law, and far-fetched."
Denying all accusations, Azarian admitted only several shortcomings
which, he said, could not have an essential impact on the overall
process and its outcome.
The four groups challenging the election results presented a number
of petitions for the court to consider.
After two hours of deliberations in the afternoon the court decided
to sustain only those of more than a dozen petitions presented by
the plaintiffs that regard minor concerns, such as the provision of
copies of documents, while rejecting petitions to involve in the
case as co-respondents the republic's president, prime minister,
representatives of different political parties and state bodies,
representatives of political forces in the Central Election Commission
(CEC) that refused to put their signatures to the body's decision on
May 19. The petition to invite OSCE observers who registered cases
of false inserts in citizens' passports was also turned down.
The Court also turned down the Impeachment bloc's petition that
the CEC's May 19 decision should be invalidated and that an expert
examination be appointed. It also turned down the request not to
recognize Justice Minister David Harutiunian as a co-respondent because
of his conflicting interests as a party member and justice minister.
Under Armenian law, the Constitutional Court has to deliver a verdict
on the appeals by June 10.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
By Karine Kalantarian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
June 4 2007
Armenia's Constitutional Court on Monday continued hearings on appeals
of several opposition groups against the official results of the May
12 parliamentary elections.
Four groups, including the Republic (Hanrapetutyun) and New Times
parties, and the Impeachment bloc, as well as ex-parliament speaker
Artur Baghdasarian's Orinats Yerkir party have wrapped up the
presentation of evidence of what they claim to have been large-scale
fraud committed during the elections.
The three radical opposition groups pushing for an immediate power
change in the country are demanding that the court invalidate the
official figures of last month's elections and order a rerun of voting
under the system of proportional representation. And Orinats Yerkir,
the only of the four that managed to clear the five percent hurdle
to enter the new legislature, is seeking a recount of ballots in some
200 polling stations across the country.
Speaking in court on June 4, an Impeachment bloc representative
claimed large-scale violations throughout the election period. Nikol
Pashinian qualified the actions of the Republican Party of Armenia
(HHK) and the Prosperous Armenia party (BHK), which shared between
themselves a total of about 48 percent of the vote, as stepping out
of the boundaries of constitutionality to reduce the May 12 vote to
"something not foreseen by the constitution and laws."
In his speech, the Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper's editor-in-chief
tried to substantiate his claims that the electoral violations were
of a wholesale, organized and continual nature, making a reference
to the mechanism of non-existing voters that he alleged had been
widely used during last month's vote as well as challenging the
authorities' decision to deprive citizens of Armenia living abroad
of the opportunity to vote.
Pashinian was several times warned by the Constitutional Court chairman
to avoid political statements in his remarks and keep to the legal
aspect of the matter.
CEC Chairman Garegin Azarian, who represents the respondent's side,
replied to all accusations of fraud and electoral violations. He
described the "judgments" of the claimants as "subjective, based on
arbitrary interpretation of the law, and far-fetched."
Denying all accusations, Azarian admitted only several shortcomings
which, he said, could not have an essential impact on the overall
process and its outcome.
The four groups challenging the election results presented a number
of petitions for the court to consider.
After two hours of deliberations in the afternoon the court decided
to sustain only those of more than a dozen petitions presented by
the plaintiffs that regard minor concerns, such as the provision of
copies of documents, while rejecting petitions to involve in the
case as co-respondents the republic's president, prime minister,
representatives of different political parties and state bodies,
representatives of political forces in the Central Election Commission
(CEC) that refused to put their signatures to the body's decision on
May 19. The petition to invite OSCE observers who registered cases
of false inserts in citizens' passports was also turned down.
The Court also turned down the Impeachment bloc's petition that
the CEC's May 19 decision should be invalidated and that an expert
examination be appointed. It also turned down the request not to
recognize Justice Minister David Harutiunian as a co-respondent because
of his conflicting interests as a party member and justice minister.
Under Armenian law, the Constitutional Court has to deliver a verdict
on the appeals by June 10.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress