Armenia's Constitutional Court allows two judges to hear election challenge case

Armenia's Constitutional Court on Friday ruled that justices Seda Safaryan and Davit Khachaturyan will participate in proceedings examining legal challenges to the results of the June 7 parliamentary elections, rejecting requests to bar them from the high-profile case.

The court declined to consider motions questioning the two judges' eligibility to sit on the consolidated case, which stems from petitions filed by seven political parties and alliances contesting the election results.

No member of the Constitutional Court raised objections to the participation of Safaryan or Khachaturyan during the hearing. Court President Arman Dilanyan subsequently declared the matter resolved.

"All of the circumstances raised here have already been thoroughly examined by the Constitutional Court," Dilanyan said. "During the court's procedural session, substantially more issues were considered than those discussed here today."

He further argued that the circumstances surrounding Safaryan differed fundamentally from those involving judges Artak Zeynalyan and Vladimir Vardanyan, whose recusals had previously been accepted.

Under earlier procedural decisions of the Constitutional Court, Zeynalyan and Vardanyan were excluded from participating in the election dispute. Similar requests had also been submitted seeking the recusal of Safaryan and Khachaturyan.

The court additionally rejected a motion filed by attorney Aram Orbelyan, who argued that the Constitutional Court lacked a legally constituted quorum to hear the case.