Armenia sees no legal grounds to void June 7 election results

Armenian Justice Minister Srbuhi Galyan has said there are no legal grounds to invalidate the results of the country's June 7 parliamentary elections, arguing that the evidence submitted by political forces to the Constitutional Court does not warrant overturning the outcome.

Speaking to reporters outside the Constitutional Court, Galyan said that none of the materials presented by the parties seeking to challenge the election results justified declaring the vote invalid, Caliber.Az reports, citing Russian media.

"There are no grounds for declaring the elections invalid based on the facts presented by any of the parties," she said.

The minister acknowledged allegations made by one of the political forces that widespread vote-buying took place during the election campaign. However, she maintained that such claims alone do not provide sufficient legal basis to annul the election results.

"It is very important to determine the scale of the alleged vote-buying. Secondly, our position is that cases of vote-buying should be assessed by the law enforcement authorities," Galyan said.

According to the official results of the June 7 parliamentary elections, the ruling Civil Contract party, led by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, secured 49.7456% of the vote.

The Strong Armenia bloc, led by Russian-Armenian businessman Samvel Karapetyan, finished second with 23.2710%, while the Armenia Alliance bloc, headed by former President Robert Kocharyan, received 9.9231% of the vote.

By Vafa Guliyeva