CONSTITUTIONAL COURT OPENS ELECTION APPEAL HEARINGS
By Karine Kalantarian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
June 1 2007
Armenia’s Constitutional Court on Friday began hearings on appeals
against the official results of the May 12 parliamentary elections
which have been filed by four opposition groups alleging large-scale
fraud.
Three of them, the Hanrapetutyun and Nor Zhamanakner parties and
the Impeachment bloc, are demanding that the court invalidate the
official figures and order a rerun of voting held under the system
of proportional representation. The fourth applicant, the Orinats
Yerkir Party of former parliament speaker Artur Baghdasarian, is
seeking recounting of ballots in 10 percent of some 2,000 polling
stations across Armenia.
Hovannes Markarian, who made the party’s case during the first court
hearing, said Orinats Yerkir will demand a full election re-run if
the recount exposes violations and number discrepancies that were
serious enough to affect the overall result.
"In any case, elections must be deemed null and void in those precincts
where fraud had a significant impact on the outcome," he said.
According to the government-controlled Central Election Commission
(CEC), Orinats Yerkir won about 7 percent of votes cast under the
proportional system, earning it 8 seats in the 131-member National
Assembly.
The three other opposition groups challenging the credibility of the
CEC tally fared even worse, failing to win a single parliament seat.
In their opening statements in the court, their representatives accused
the three main pro-government parties that won the vast majority
of parliament seats of resorting to serious fraud both during the
election campaign on voting day. They promised to submit evidence of
the alleged fraud during the next court sessions.
Under Armenian law, the Constitutional Court has to deliver a verdict
on the appeals by June 10. The panel of nine judges has rejected
opposition appeals against past Armenian elections criticized as
undemocratic by Western monitors. Analysts say it is therefore unlikely
to invalidate the latest polls, especially considering their largely
positive assessment by the West.
The leaders of Hanrapetutyun, Impeachment, and Nor Zhamanakner admit
that their chances of winning the case are slim. But they hope that
the court action will have a public resonance and give a new momentum
to their ongoing campaign of anti-government demonstrations.
The three groups again failed to pull a large crowd as they held a
weekly rally in Yerevan on Friday. Only about 1,000 people turned
out to attend it.