"We insist that participation of the RA
President, Prime Minister, other high level officials representing the
executive power in the pre-election campaign while implementing their official
mandate contradicts the principle of equality enshrined in the Article 4 of the
RA Constitution", declared today the representative of the Armenian National
Congress (HAK) lawyer Vahe Grigoryan in the RA Constitutional Court. 

To remind, Armenian National Congress alliance applied
to the RA Constitutional Court and demanded to recognize void the results of
proportional-system elections of the Armenian National Assembly held on May 6,
2012 (RA CEC, Decision 265- Ա, held on 13.05.2012).

In the beginning of the hearing Tigran Mukuchian,
the Chairman of the Central Election Commission (CEC) motioned to the Court to
discontinue the case. Mukuchian stated that neither the content of the appeal
nor the argumentation used have connection with the legality of the CEC
decision of May 13. Besides, there are no arguments and justifications on what
legal norm of the RA Electoral Code precisely the Decision contradicts.

After deliberation, the Court has decided to hear
the parties taking into account that the law envisages the discussion of the discontinuation
of the case at any stage.

The applicant, on behalf of HAK Coordinator Levon
Zurabyan and Vahe Grigoryan, presented its arguments and justifications.

Grigoryan stressed that during the Parliamentary
elections most of the violations have been recorded during the pre-election
campaign when the principle of equality of the elections has been violated.

The applicant believes that candidacy and
participation of the RA President in Parliamentary elections seriously affected
the results and violated the principle of equality of all candidates.

«If the participation of the President does not
pursue the goal of taking part in the work of legislative, what are the goals
then?», asks the lawyer and adds that candidacy of Serzh Sargsyan was formal
and supported the Republican Party of Armenia because he presented a rejection.

The lawyer claimed that the Republican Party
misused the government resources. By presenting number of instances he
concluded that the Armenian President along with his official duties conducted
the pre-election campaign in marzes which created unequal conditions of
competition and had the impact on the elections’’ results.

While answering the questions of CEC Chairman
Tigran Mukuchian why HAC had not appealed against the registration of the
President’s candidacy as the MP member, the lawyer said: “Whom should we
appeal, you? You do not consider this as violation.”

As Vahe Grigoryan said, “CEC simply is under the
impact of the RA President, because the members of the Commission are approved
by the President’s Decree.”

Answering the question of Tigran Mukuchian, which
law they violated by registering the President’s candidacy, the lawyer said:
“Even if no law was violated, it does not mean that constitutional principle
was not violated. The law should grant the effective possibility to apply the
constitutional principle. If that not happen, it does not mean that in the case
of violation of the constitutional principle a person can not ask for remedy.”

HAK representative also insisted that the right
to make extracts from the lists signed by voters was not ensured effectively
because one political power can not have enough resources to become acquainted
with, examine and make extracts from the lists.

HAK Coordinator Levon Zurabyan declared that too
swift disappearance of the stamp placed in the passport of the voter has a
connection with repeat voting. Taking into account the gathering during the
morning hours and after examining the results obtained from different constituencies,
HAK representatives concluded that in the morning there were mainly votes for the Republican
Party. Data of the ballots placed in the nethermost part of the ballot box was
taken into account.

Zurabyan also expressed distrust regarding the
official number of people participated in the elections; more than 1, 5 million
people. According to HAK’s calculations, it makes 86 % of the country’s
population. Zurabyan says that 200 thousand people officially had left the
country and based on their calculations, 1 million 80 thousand people took part
in the elections.

Representative of the applicant, lawyer Vahe
Grigoryan asked to provide some time to answer the questions posed by the
respondent, Chairman of the CEC Tigran Mukuchian. The latter said he will
present the answer to the suit upon receiving the answers to the questions he
posed today.

The Court decided to postpone the hearing until
May 29, 10 am.

Karine Ionesyan

Mary Alexanyan