The
Armenian Constitutional Court on 14 March 2013 dismissed the appeals of the
candidates for the President’s post Raffi Hovhannisyan and Andrias Ghukasyan
with the demand to consider the results of 18 February elections void.

The
Court ruled to leave in force the Central Electoral Commission’s decision No
62-A of 25 February 2013, according to which the incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan,
who obtained 58 per cent of votes, has been re-elected as the President of
Armenia.

The
Constitutional Court considered void the calculation results of the precinct
station 17/05 of Artashat and ordered to send related materials to the Prosecutor’s
Office.

It
is stated in the decision of the Court that the Heritage party had
representatives in 1884 precinct stations and Raffi Hovhannisyan had 1009
proxies.

In
all the precinct stations the representatives of the party signed under the
protocols. Only in 1 out of 1988 polling stations, the representative of
Heritage party expressed a special opinion, which was incorporated in the
protocol.

The
Court finds that the representatives of the Heritage party had an opportunity
to oversight the process of the elections; however, they did not use the
opportunity to submit their objections within the allocated deadlines.

According
to Article 102.2 of the Armenian Constitution, the decisions of the
Constitutional Court are final and come into force from the moment of their
publication.

Let
us remind that following the 2008 Presidential elections, the Presidential
candidate who came second according to the obtained ballots, also appealed to
the Constitutional Court demanding to recognize the election results void and
was rejected as well.  

The
Presidential candidates Raffi Hovhannisyan and Andrias Ghukasyan submitted
complaints to the Constitutional Court on 4 March 2013 against the decision
62-A of the Central Electoral Commission on elected President of Armenia made
on 25.02.2013. The review of the complaints started on 11 March 2013 and lasted
for three days. Lawyer Karen Ghukasyan and NA Deputy Zarouhi Postanjan
represented interests of Raffi Hovhannisyan at the Court. Andrias Ghukasyan presented
his complaint in the court by himself. The Central Electoral Commission’s Chairman
Tigran Moukouchyan, Secretary Armen Smbatyan and Head of the Legal Department
Nouneh Hovhannisyan were involved in the case as respondents.

The
incumbent President was represented at the Court by the Minister of Justice
Hrant Tovmassyan and Chair of the Standing Committee on State and Legal Issues
in the National Assembly Davit Haroutyunyan.