Armenia's Constitutional Court begins hearings on petitions challenging election results

Armenia's Constitutional Court on Friday began hearings on petitions seeking to invalidate the results of the June 7 parliamentary elections, with seven political groups contesting the outcome in a consolidated proceeding.

The court scheduled the hearing to commence at 11:00 a.m. after merging the seven petitions into a single case. The challenges were filed by the Strong Armenia alliance, the Hayastan (Armenia) alliance, Wings of Unity, the DOK party, the Prosperous Armenia Party, as well as the political parties led by Arman Babajanyan and Hayk Marutyan.

Constitutional Court justice Edgar Shatiryan is serving as the rapporteur, and the case is being examined under an oral procedure.

In accordance with earlier procedural rulings, Constitutional Court judges Artak Zeynalyan and Vladimir Vardanyan are recused from the proceedings. The court determined that their participation was impermissible on the grounds of perceived bias toward a party to the case, its representatives, or other participants in the proceedings.

As a result, seven of the Constitutional Court's nine justices are taking part in the review of the election challenges.