Discrepancy of approximately 27,800 signatures recorded: Hovhannes Khudoyan

The Constitutional Court continues to review applications filed by opposition forces challenging the results of the parliamentary elections. Speaking to journalists after a closed session of the court, lawyer Hovhannes Khudoyan presented details of the issues under discussion, the violations identified during the elections, and the authorities’ attitude toward this process.

Addressing the closed format of the session, the lawyer noted that certain confidential information had been discussed, including materials containing state secrets.

“I can’t say exactly what we’re discussing at this session, but at previous sessions certain confidential information was discussed, including material constituting pre-investigation and state secrets. The issue of voters who cast ballots under a secret list, mainly servicemen, was also discussed. I can’t provide more detailed information,” he noted.

Khudoyan also spoke in detail about the calculations made by his team, which explain the large discrepancy between the number of voter signatures and the number of ballots.

“We initially raised the question of having checked the lists of signatures and compared them with the final number of protocols published by the CEC [the number of voters who took part]. We found that 27,800 signatures were missing. According to the protocol, the number of signatures should match the number of voters. The Central Election Commission immediately clarified that there are individuals who voted under the secret list, servicemen and so on. That’s an acceptable argument, but as we’ve already said, even subtracting that number, the discrepancy would still amount to roughly 10,000 votes,” Khudoyan emphasized.