Opposition Orinats Yerkir Party has no intention of disputing referendum results in court

The opposition Orinats Yerkir Party (OEK) does not consider the constitutional reform referendum in Armenia as well as the rallies held to protest the December 6 plebiscite as an opportunity for a change of power in the country, OEK said in a statement today.

When speaking about the irregularities on the referendum day, OEK members say in the statement that ID cards (new internal passports in Armenia) have played a negative role. The party demands that law enforcement agencies take efficient measures to ensure an objective investigation into the irregularities reported by the mass and social media and to punish those guilty.

Noting that numerous irregularities took place during the voting, the party says it has no intention of disputing the referendum  results in the Constitutional Court of Armenia because first, ‘tens of thousands of citizens’ voluntarily became participants in what happened; secondly,  there are not enough MPs in the Armenian parliament for initiating such a procedure (at least 27 MPs are needed)l thirdly, the difference between ‘yes’ and no’ votes (in favor of and against the constitutional amendments) is great – according to official data, the number of the reform supporters is almost twice the number of those who rejected it, and such a proportion will not lead to a change of the final results.

OEK also said it plans to mobilize its efforts to form authorities of a new quality through the 2017 national elections. 

To remind, the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Armenia published the preliminary results of the referendum on the amendments to the Constitution of Armenia after the ballots from all 1,997 polling stations across Armenia were processed. According to the website of CEC, 825,622 voters (63.35% of the referendum participants or 32.17% of the citizens included in the voter lists) voted for the reform. 421,593 voters (32.35% of the participants or 16.42% of the citizens included in the voter lists) voted against. The Head of Armenia’s CEC Tigran Mukuchyan said that 1,296,368 voters or 50.51% of the total number of the citizens eligible for participation in the referendum voted as of 8:00 pm, December 6.