Constitutional Court Rejects Opposition Parties' Requests

The President of the Constitutional Court, Arman Dilanyan, has published the decisions made by the high court regarding the requests submitted by the ‘Zartonk’ party and the ‘Hayastan’ and ‘Pativ Unem’ alliances. According to Hetq, the requests from the ‘Zartonk’ party included information from the National Security Service (NSS) about when each citizen who participated in the elections last left the Armenian state border and when they returned, as well as the number of citizens who signed the lists but are not present in Armenia according to NSS data. Another request was for information from the State Revenue Committee and the Prime Minister's office regarding the number of public servants, while another was for information from the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures about how long the polling places were without electricity and the reasons for it.

The Constitutional Court rejected these requests, and it decided to postpone the discussion on the request to the Ministry of Defense for information on how many servicemen participated in the elections. The court also rejected a highly urgent request from Davit Harutyunyan, a representative of the ‘Pativ Unem’ alliance, which called for an immediate demand from the police for the audio-visual recordings from the external and internal cameras at the entrance of the Criminal Police Department, as well as all video recordings regarding the use of force against former Mehrris mayor Mkhtiar Zakaryan, and information on when the alleged crime occurred and when it was completed. Harutyunyan aimed to emphasize that the threats of violence voiced by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan were of a real nature.

Two of the four requests submitted by the ‘Hayastan’ bloc were also rejected, while the consideration of the other two was postponed by the Constitutional Court. The requests from the ‘Hayastan’ bloc are related to the aforementioned issues as well.

It is noteworthy that the decisions on the requests made by the Constitutional Court do not relate to the final determination regarding the appeals challenging the election results.

After publishing the decisions on the requests, Constitutional Court President Arman Dilanyan expelled the media representatives and others present—except for the parties involved in the proceedings—so that they could discuss privately the matter of holding future proceedings behind closed doors. Dilanyan clarified that the question of holding closed sessions is once again discussed in a closed regime.

It should be reminded that for the fifth day, the high court is reviewing the appeals submitted regarding the results of the extraordinary parliamentary elections by the ‘Hayastan’, ‘Pativ Unem’ blocs, ‘Zartonk’, and ‘Hayots Hayrenik’ parties.