“Strong Armenia” was denied minimum guarantees in the election: Aram Vardevanyan tells Constitutional Court

The Constitutional Court of the RA continues its review of the case challenging the results of the National Assembly elections, based on the complaints of 7 political forces. During the proceedings, Aram Vardevanyan, a lawyer representing the “Strong Armenia” party, delivered a closing statement, raising the issue of unequal election conditions, the use of administrative resources, and coordinated actions by the law enforcement system against political forces.

Vardevanyan sharply criticized the working methods of the Central Election Commission, stating that the body had abandoned substantive administration and was simply forwarding the complaints it received without taking any further action.

According to the lawyer, the elections were held under unequal conditions, and the “Strong Armenia” alliance was denied minimum guarantees. As evidence, he pointed to hasty amendments to the Electoral Code and the measure of restraint applied to the alliance’s leader.

“On April 7, amendments were made to the Electoral Code against the ‘Strong Armenia’ party alliance, so that personal names would not be used, so that the name of the alliance’s leader, Samvel Karapetyan, would not be mentioned, so that it would not be mentioned during the vote. Samvel Karapetyan was under house arrest throughout the entire electoral process. Let us pose a rhetorical question: what if another political force, whose interests are affected by this dispute, had been in similar conditions? Would the election results have been the same as those published by the CEC? Let me answer that myself: no,” Vardevanyan noted.