ON THE DISPUTE ON THE RESULTS OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS BY MAJORITARIAN SYSTEM IN CONSTITUENCY # 67 HELD ON MAY 30, 1999

Yerevan, June 21, 1999

The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia chaired by the President of the Constitutional Court G. Harutiunian, represented by the Deputy President of the Constitutional Court V. Hovhannissian and the Constitutional Court members A. Gyulumian, F. Tokhian, H. Nazarian, R. Papayan, V. Poghossian, V. Sahakian and M. Sevian,

with the participation of

the plaintiff Karapet Nersissian, candidate for deputy of the Republic of Armenia National Assembly, and his representatives Hovhannes Lalayan and Hovhannes Davtian,

the respondents - the representatives of the Shirak Regional Electoral Commission - Parkev Kurghinian, Hovhannes Petrossian and Jeanna Aghadjanian,

pursuant to Paragraph 3 of Article 100 and Paragraph 3 of Article 101 of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, to Paragraph 3 of Article 5, Paragraph 3 of Article 25 and to Article 57 of the Republic of Armenia Law “On the Constitutional Court”,

considered in a public hearing the case “On the dispute on the results of the National Assembly elections by majoritarian system in constituency # 67 held on May 30, 1999”.

The case was initiated by the candidate for deputy of the Republic of Armenia National Assembly, Karapet Nersissian’s petition.

Having heard the report of the Constitutional Court Member A. Gyulumian, the reporter of the case, having examined the explanations of Karapet Nersissian, the candidate for deputy of the Republic of Armenia National Assembly, of his representatives and of the representatives of the Shirak Regional Electoral Commission, and having investigated the existing documents of the case, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia

FINDS:

1. Summarizing the results of the elections in constituency # 67, the Shirak Regional Electoral Commission adopted a decision that Samvel Avetissian had been elected as a deputy of the National Assembly on June 3, 1999.

According to the final protocol drawn up by the Shirak Regional Electoral Commission on the results of the National Assembly elections by majoritarian system constituency # 67 held on May 30, 1999, the breakdown of the ballots cast for 12 candidates to the National Assembly nominated and, following the procedure stipulated by Paragraph 4 of Article 114 of the RA Electoral Code, included in the ballots for Constituency # 67 was the following: 3,524 ballots cast for Samvel Avetissian; 2,849 – for Karapet Nersissian; 2,285 – for Hunan Petrossian; 2,251 – for Ashot Shahbazian; 2,084 – for Petros Makeyan; 1,931 – for Romik Manukian; 1,062 – for Karapet Bayburdtsian; 989 – for Arthur Yezekian; 626 – for Gagik Hovhannissian; 224 – for Yurik Petrossian and 210 – for Khatchik Sargsian.

2. In his petition filed with the Constitutional Court the candidate for deputy of the National Assembly, Karapet Nersissian regarded the decision of the Regional Electoral Commission unacceptable and requested to annul the results of the elections of the National Assembly in that constituency. He believed that during pre-election phase and on the election day, serious violations of the Electoral Code of the Republic of Armenia have been committed, which affected the election results in the constituency. In particular, he mentioned that in several electoral precincts the voters’ passport data were missing, that several individuals voted using the same passport and that in some electoral precincts individuals who had not been on voters lists were added into those lists and cast the ballot even though there was no court decision authorizing their inclusion in the voters lists.

To support his claims, the plaintiff submitted, as evidence, copies of voters lists from the electoral precincts in question, copies of the protocols on the verifications by three members of the Regional Electoral Commission and by two proxies of the candidates and copies of final protocols of regional and precinct electoral commissions.

3. The representatives of the Shirak Regional Electoral Commission, involved in the hearing of the case as respondents by the decision of the Constitutional Court, objected to the plaintiff’s petition. They contended that violations listed in the petition could not have affected the election outcome since the winning contestant received the least number of votes in those electoral precincts.

4. The Constitutional Court demanded and received from the Shirak Regional Electoral Commission the following documentation: copies of the decision of the Shirak Regional Electoral Commission about the outcome of the elections by majoritarian system in Constituency # 67 as well as copies of the final protocol of the Regional Electoral Commission certified by the chairperson and secretary of the Commission, copies of both the final protocols and protocols on the number of inaccuracies from all the electoral precincts in Constituency # 67, copies of complaints lodged with the Regional Electoral Commission about the election results in the electoral precincts of that constituency and the report on what action was taken in response to those complaints.

5. According to the June 3, 1999 protocol on the verifications by three members of the Regional Electoral Commission and by two proxies of the candidates in response to the complaint lodged by Karapet Nersissian, passport data on 480 voters were missing from the voters lists in electoral precinct # 1318 in the Arevshat community, and passport data on 496, 204 and 184 voters were missing from the voters lists in electoral precinct # 1320 in the Mets Mantash community, in electoral precinct # 1313 in the Anushavan community and in electoral precinct # 1324 in the Akhurian community, respectively. 20 individuals, residents of Gyumri, Yerevan and Vanadzor cities voted in the electoral precinct # 1324 in the Akhurian community and 36, who were not local residents, voted in electoral precinct # 1329 in the Arevik community, in both cases without the court decision that would entitle them to do so.

6. According to Paragraph 5 of Article 116 of the Electoral Code of the Republic of Armenia, the election of the National Assembly deputy is pronounced null and void if a number of inaccuracies that affect the number of cast ballots rules out the possibility to determine the winning contestant or else if such violations of the same Code occurred at the pre-election and election day phases that could have affected the outcome of the elections.

The examination of the submitted voters lists revealed that passport data on 516 individuals are missing from the voters lists in electoral precinct # 1318 in the Arevshat community. The examination also revealed incomplete passport data on 400, 376 and 167 voters in electoral precinct # 1320 in the Mets Mantash community, in electoral precinct # 1313 in the Anushavan community and in electoral precinct # 1324 in the Akhurian community respectively. The requirements of Paragraph 2 of Article 55 of the RA Electoral Code which spell out the voters registration procedure were violated in the above-mentioned electoral precincts. As per the requirements, the commission member responsible for the registration has to check the document that establishes the voter’s identity, to find that person’s first and last name and his number in the voters list, to fill the ID data in the voters list and then the voter has to put his signature next to those data. However, the examination of the final protocols drawn up by the precinct electoral commissions revealed that in electoral precinct # 1318 in the Arevshat community, in electoral precinct # 1320 in the Mets Mantash community and in electoral precinct # 1313 in the Anushavan community, where violations against Paragraph 2 of Article 55 of the RA Electoral Code had been committed, the number of ballots cast for the elected candidate Samvel Avetissian was respectively 4, 39 and 3, whereas 308, 126 and 29 ballots respectively had been cast for Karapet Nersissian. Therefore, the violations committed in those electoral precincts could not possible have affected the number of ballots cast for the candidate Samvel Avetissian who received the highest number of “for” votes. Neither could the number of ballots received by Samvel Avetissian be affected by the fact that the passport series data on 167 voters had not been filled in electoral precinct # 1324 in the Akhurian community, since 1,815 voters in that electoral precinct had cast their ballots for Samvel Avetissian, whereas only 68 voters had cast their ballots for the candidate who eventually got the second best results.

The examination of the protocols on the number of inaccuracies drawn up by all 26 electoral precincts of the constituency in question revealed that the number of inaccuracies that affect the number of ballots cast is 487, whereas the number reported by the final protocols is 134. This number of inaccuracies does not rule out the possibility to determine the winning candidate, since the difference in ballots cast for the candidate Samvel Avetissian who got the best results and for the candidate Karapet Nersissian who got the second best results is 675, which is greater than the number of inaccuracies.

Proceeding from the results of the case, hearing and adhering to Paragraph 3 of Article 100 and to Article 102 of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, to Paragraph 3 of Article 5 and to Articles 57, 67 and 68 of the Republic of Armenia Law “On the Constitutional Court”, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia

G. Harutiunian
President of the Constitutional Court