Armenian election commission chief defends decision against revote at three polling stations

Armenia’s Central Electoral Commission (CEC) chairman has defended the decision not to hold a revote after invalidating results at three polling stations in the country’s June 7 parliamentary elections, arguing that a partial rerun could compromise electoral fairness and distort the will of voters.

In a statement released on Monday, CEC Chairman Vahagn Hovakimyan said the commission must be guided by constitutional principles rather than automatically ordering repeat voting whenever polling station results are annulled.

“The Central Electoral Commission should not automatically schedule a revote after invalidating the results of a polling station,” Hovakimyan said. “Its responsibility is to safeguard the genuine will of voters and the integrity of the electoral process.”

The commission recently invalidated voting results at three polling stations but declined to order a repeat ballot, prompting debate over whether affected voters should be given another opportunity to cast their ballots.

Hovakimyan argued that voters participating in a revote would do so under significantly different circumstances from those who voted on election day. While voters on June 7 cast their ballots without knowing the outcome, participants in a subsequent vote could have access to nearly complete election results and adjust their choices accordingly.

Such conditions create a risk of what election experts describe as “tactical voting,” in which voters cast ballots based on the known electoral landscape rather than their original political preferences, he said.

Hovakimyan cited a 2025 urgent opinion by the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe’s constitutional advisory body, which states that while irregularities confined to specific polling stations may in some cases justify a limited revote, such a remedy may be inappropriate if it cannot guarantee a fair outcome because of the potential for tactical voting.

He also said a partial rerun could raise concerns about equal suffrage by placing one group of voters in a materially different position from all others.

Drawing on the jurisprudence of Armenia’s Constitutional Court, Hovakimyan said election authorities must protect not only the integrity of the process but also the rights of voters who lawfully cast their ballots during the original vote.

“A revote should not be allowed to exert a secondary or calculated influence on votes that were already cast under lawful conditions,” he said.

According to Hovakimyan, the commission must consider several factors before ordering repeat voting, including whether a free and equal electoral environment can still be ensured, whether knowledge of preliminary results could influence voter behavior, whether the rights of voters who already participated would be affected, and whether the causes of the violations have been fully addressed.

“If a revote cannot guarantee a free, equal and fair outcome, it should not be held,” he said, adding that declining to order repeat voting does not mean ignoring violations but rather avoiding a remedy that could further distort the electorate’s will.