Second Round for Constitutional Court President Election as Tensions Rise

The newspaper "Zhoghovurd" reports that for the past two days, members of the Constitutional Court have been unable to elect a president and vice president. Yesterday, Yervand Khundkaryan self-nominated for the position of President of the Constitutional Court, while former president Hrayr Tovmasyan nominated Ashot Khachatryan. However, the voting did not take place.

Moreover, according to "Zhoghovurd"'s information, it is highly likely that the election outcome will be decided in a second round. The reason is that, according to Armenia's law on the Constitutional Court, only a candidate who receives two-thirds of the total votes of the judges can be elected as president. The Constitutional Court has 9 members, thus any candidate needs to receive 6 votes to become the head of the institution, which is not very realistic. If nobody obtains the required number of votes, a second round of voting will be held within five days, during which the person who receives the majority of the judges' votes will become president.

Despite Ashot Khachatryan withdrawing his candidacy, the question remains how the votes will align. It all depends on Arayik Tunyan and Ashot Khachatryan and how they choose to vote. In other words, Khundkaryan's fate hinges on the votes of these two individuals, while our sources within the Constitutional Court assert that both Tunyan and Khachatryan have been unpredictable in their decisions, making it unclear how they will vote today.

Even though the composition of the Constitutional Court is now complete and the institution must begin its work, it is already clear that we will face new situations and challenges in the near future. Tensions are expected to arise during discussions on each issue examined by the Constitutional Court, as each participant will try to portray themselves as the professional and only truth, resulting in lengthy, contentless debates on various matters.