Armenia Constitutional Court removes two judges from election challenge case

The Constitutional Court (CC) of Armenia has issued two rulings removing two of its eight members from reviewing a consolidated appeal filed by political forces seeking to invalidate the results of the June 7 elections.

The decision was reported on the court’s official website.

“According to paragraph 1 of part 1 of Article 16 of the Constitutional Law ‘On the Constitutional Court’, the participation of Constitutional Court judge Vladimir Vardanyan (a former MP from Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s faction — ed.) in the consideration of the case is impossible due to his biased attitude,” the first ruling states.

A similar decision was issued regarding judge Artak Zeynalyan, who also previously served as an MP from the ruling faction and was Minister of Justice in the government of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in 2018–2019.

On June 19, seven blocs and parties filed lawsuits with the Constitutional Court of Armenia requesting that the results of the parliamentary elections be declared invalid. On June 21, the court decided to consolidate all submitted appeals into a single case.

According to the official results of the June 7 parliamentary elections, the ruling Civil Contract party of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan received 49.7456% of the vote. The Strong Armenia bloc, led by Russian businessman Samvel Karapetyan, secured 23.2710%, while the Armenia bloc of former President Robert Kocharyan received 9.9231%.

By Vafa Guliyeva