Armenia's top court to decide fate of disputed election by July 4

Armenia's Constitutional Court is expected to deliver its ruling by July 4 on petitions filed by seven political forces seeking to overturn the results of the country's parliamentary elections held on June 7.

The announcement was made by Arman Dilanyan, President of the Constitutional Court, while speaking to reporters, Caliber.Az reports, citing Russian media.

Dilanyan said the court has been working under an intensive schedule for the past five days to review the election-related cases and emphasized that it is legally obligated to conclude the proceedings by the July 4 deadline.

"Our work under such a tight schedule and in such an intensive mode is aimed precisely at ensuring that we publish the decision by July 4, which is the legal deadline," he said.

The Constitutional Court began hearing the petitions on June 26, consolidating the applications submitted by the seven political forces into a single proceeding.

Among the petitioners are the opposition Strong Armenia bloc led by Russian-Armenian businessman Samvel Karapetyan, the Armenia Alliance bloc headed by former President Robert Kocharyan, and the Prosperous Armenia party led by Gagik Tsarukyan.

Prosperous Armenia narrowly missed the 4% threshold required to enter parliament, falling fewer than 200 votes short. The party contends that the decision by Armenia's Central Electoral Commission not to hold repeat voting at three polling stations, where the original results had been annulled, deprived it of parliamentary representation.

The petitioners are asking the Constitutional Court either to invalidate the June 7 election results and order fresh elections or to mandate a second round of voting.

The case is being heard in oral proceedings, with Constitutional Court Judge Edgar Shatiryan serving as rapporteur.

 Under Armenia's Law on the Constitutional Court, the court may either uphold the Central Election Commission's decision or issue one of three alternative rulings: invalidate the election results, invalidate the results while determining a revised allocation of parliamentary mandates, or order a second round of voting. By law, the court must issue its decision within 15 days of receiving the petitions.

By Vafa Guliyeva