Constitutional Court Begins Hearing Challenges to Parliamentary Election Results

YEREVAN — The Constitutional Court has begun examining the applications filed by seven political forces challenging the results of the National Assembly elections.

Seven of the Constitutional Court’s nine judges are participating in the hearing, including Seda Safaryan.

Earlier, the Armenia Alliance had submitted a motion to the high court requesting that Judge Seda Safaryan’s participation in the proceedings be deemed impossible on the grounds of bias. The Constitutional Court did not consider the issue concerning Judge Safaryan.

Seda Safaryan was included on the electoral list of the Shirinyan-Babajanyan Alliance of Democrats during the 2021 parliamentary elections. Arman Babajanyan’s For the Republic party is also challenging the election results in the Constitutional Court, and in 2021 Babajanyan and Safaryan were part of the same alliance.

By decision of the Constitutional Court, Judges Vladimir Vardanyan and Artak Zeynalyan are not participating in the examination of the applications.

According to a previously published document, the participation of Vardanyan and Zeynalyan in the case was deemed impossible because they had a “prejudiced attitude” toward the parties to the proceedings.

Attorney Aram Orbelyan filed a motion requesting that the case be heard by the full bench.

“The Constitution guarantees the examination of cases by the Constitutional Court. Accordingly, the Constitutional Court has nine members. Changing the number of nine members, which is provided for by constitutional law but not by the Constitution, creates a situation in which the case is now being heard not by the Constitutional Court, but by a reduced composition of the Constitutional Court. This creates a certain problem related to the mechanism for adopting decisions,” Orbelyan said.

The main respondent in the proceedings is the Central Electoral Commission. The Civil Contract Party is participating as a third party, while representatives of the Prosecutor’s Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Anti-Corruption Committee are presenting related responses.

Liparit Drmeyan, a representative of the Wings of Unity party, filed a motion to suspend the proceedings, arguing that they had applied to the Administrative Court and asking that the case be suspended until the completion of that case.

“We ask that the proceedings of this consolidated case be suspended until the completion of the administrative case challenging the Central Electoral Commission’s June 14, 2026, Decision No. 258-A under administrative procedure,” Drmeyan said.