CONSTITUTIONAL COURT LEAVES RESULTS OF NA ELECTIONS HELD IN MAJORITY SYSTEM IN ELECTORAL DISTRICT 36 IN FORCE

Noyan Tapan
Jul 2, 2007

YEREVAN, JULY 2, NOYAN TAPAN. The Constitutional Court left the May
12 results of the NA elections held in a majority system in electoral
district 36 in force on June 29. The case was heard in court on the
basis of the application of Mushegh Saghatelian, an MP candidate.

According to the Constitutional Court, both the claimant and respondent
sides did not count the number of inaccuracies in the electoral
district in a proper way: according to the claimant’s side the number
is 9632, and the respondent side claims that it makes 134. However,
according to the calculations of the Constitutional Court, the number
of inaccuracies makes 364. Thus, the number of inaccuracies registered
in the electoral district has not, in reality, surpassed the difference
of the votes given for the first two candidates, which, according to
the Electoral Code, could be considered as a basis for invalidating
the elections.

At the same time the Constitutional Court recorded that the order
of providing extracts of the minutes concerning the results of
the elections has been violated by the electoral commission in
the above-mentioned electoral district: the applicants were given
minutes containing incomplete data, which could not reflect the
total picture of the elections. It is mentioned in the decision of
the Constitutional Court that there were mechanical and arithmetical
mistakes in the minutes and there is also the problem of a low level
of training among members of Local Electoral Commissions. The General
Electoral Commission in some cases did not check the validity of the
data received from electoral districts in a defined way despite being
obliged to.