Considered in a public hearing the case ''On the dispute on the outcome of the elections of the President of the Republic of Armenia of September 22, 1996.''

The case was initiated by the Candidate for the President of the Republic Vazgen Manoukian's petition filed with the Constitutional Court requesting to annul the outcome of the elections of the President of the Republic, which was published by the Central Electoral Commission, as well as its resulting resolution declaring the election of the President of the Republic of Armenia. The case was also initiated by a petition that was filed with the Constitutional Court by the Candidate for President Ashot Manoucharian, disputing the voting results of the elections of the President of the Republic of Armenia.

The Constitutional Court adopted a procedural resolution to hear the case, based on its discussion in a session held on October 28, 1996, of the petition of the Candidate for President Vazgen Manoukian. In accordance with Article 36 of the ''Law of the Republic of Armenia on the Constitutional Court,'' A. Gyulumian, H. Khachatrian, V. Hovhannisian, Members of the Constitutional Court, were appointed rapporteurs to prepare the case for the Court's consideration and to present its circumstances.

Pursuant to Articles 39, 40 and 57 of the ''Law of the Republic of Armenia on the Constitutional Court '' and by the decision of the Constitutional Court, the Central Electoral Commission was identified as the respondent in the case, since, according to Article 9 of the 'Law of the Republic of Armenia on the Elections of the President of the Republic of Armenia,'' the Central Electoral Commission is the body responsible for the organization and oversight of elections in the Republic and it is the Central Electoral Commission's resolution that is the subject of the dispute in this case.

The Constitutional Court adopted a procedural resolution to hear the case based on its discussion in a session that was held on October 30, 1996, of the petition of the Candidate for President A. Manoucharian. In accordance with Article 36 of the ''Law of the Republic of Armenia on the Constitutional Court,'' V. Stepanian, Deputy President of the Constitutional Court and M. Sevian and V. Sahakian, Members of the Constitutional Court, were appointed rapporteurs to prepare the case for the Court's consideration and to present its circumstances.

Pursuant to the requirements of Articles 45 and 65 of the ''Law of the Republic of Armenia on the Constitutional Court,'' the Constitutional Court decided in its session of November 7, 1996, to join and hear during the same session the cases on the petitions of V. Manoukian and A. Manoucharian.

After hearing the reports of H. Khachatrian, Member of the Constitutional Court and, V. Stepanian the Deputy President of the Constitutional Court, both rapporteurs for this case, as well as the explanations, interventions and proposals of the representatives of the parties, the explanations of witnesses, and having studied the petitions and other documents of the case, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia finds that:

The elections of the President of the Republic of Armenia were conducted on September 22, 1996, in 1598 polling stations, formed according to Articles 2 and 8 of the ''Law of the Republic of Armenia on the Elections of the President of the Republic of Armenia'', within the time limit prescribed by Article 51 of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia. Pursuant to the procedure established by the ''Law of the Republic of Armenia on the Elections of the President of the Republic of Armenia," there were 930 community and 11 regional electoral commissions formed that oversaw the preparation and conduct of the elections and summarized the electoral results on the whole territory of Armenia. The entire process of elections was organized and overseen by the Central Electoral Commission. In accordance with the law, the composition of the Central Electoral Commission was approved by Government Resolution 190, dated June 25, 1996. Invited by the Central Electoral Commission, 100 observers representing the Council of Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the CIS, Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the OSCE and the Parliament of Georgia monitored the preparation and conduct of the elections, as well as the tallying of the ballot results. They were given the opportunity to fulfil the functions contemplated for foreign observers in accordance with Articles 7, 26, 29 and 30 of the ''Law of the Republic of Armenia on the Elections of the President of the Republic of Armenia''.

The names of Sergey Badalian, Vazgen Manoukian, Ashot Manoucharian and Levon Ter-Petrosian, registered by the Central Electoral Commission as Candidates for the President of the Republic of Armenia, in accordance with the procedure provided by Articles 15 and 22 of the ''Law of the Republic of Armenia on the Elections of the President of the Republic of Armenia,'' appeared on the ballots on the day of the elections.

According to the results of the elections of the President of the Republic of Armenia, as officially published by the Central Electoral Commission on September 29, 1996, 1,333,204 voters participated in the elections throughout the Republic. A total of 1,249,893 votes were cast for all candidates. Of these votes 79,347 were cast for the Candidate for the President of the Republic S. Badalian (6.34%), 516,129 votes were cast for the Candidate for the President of the Republic V. Manoukian (41.29%) , 7,529 votes were cast for the Candidate for the President of the Republic A. Manoucharian (0.6%), 646,888 votes were cast for the Candidate for the President of the Republic L. Ter-Petrosian (51.75%).

L. Ter-Petrosian was elected President of the Republic of Armenia with a majority resolution by the Central Electoral Commission (16 in favour, 2 against), passed on September 29, 1996.

The petition of the Candidate for President V. Manoukian, filed with the Constitutional Court, dated October 24, 1996, claims this resolution unacceptable. The appellant considers that the right to universal, equal and direct elections and the right to the secret ballot have been violated during the preparation and conduct of the elections and that this has directly affected their outcome.

According to the appellant, these violations are proved by the documents he has presented; by the existing disparity of the numbers in the protocols of electoral commissions and those of the officially published results; by the artificial increase of the percentage of vote participation at some polling stations; by the written accounts of eyewitnesses, as well as by the facts registered by foreign observers.

The petition of the Candidate for President, A. Manoucharian, submitted to the Constitutional Court on October 25, 1996, disputes the outcome of the elections of the President of the Republic on the basis of the arguments of the final report of the OSCE observers of October 16, 1996, and presents excerpts from this report to the Constitutional Court.

Considering that the arguments presented in the final report of the OSCE observer group are sufficient to conclude that it is impossible to restore the genuine result of the elections and identify the elected candidate, A. Manoucharian requests to declare void the results of the elections of the President of September 22, 1996.

The respondent in the case objects the appellants and sees no grounds for considering the results of the elections null, as the Central Electoral Commission has summarized the results of the elections pursuant to the requirements of Article 31 of the ''Law of the Republic of Armenia on the Elections of the President of the Republic of Armenia,'' on the basis of the tabulated data on the results of the elections in the regions. The violations mentioned by the appellant may only be proved by the decisions of superior electoral commission or by the corresponding decisions of courts of general jurisdiction, while the appellants have not, as rule, applied to such bodies and there are no such decisions.

Upon the request of the Constitutional Court, the Central Electoral Commission has submitted to the Constitutional Court the following documents, regarding the organization and conduct of the elections:

-the copy of the final protocol of the election of the President of the Republic of September 22, 1996 and copies of the resolutions passed on the basis of this protocol;

- the copies of the dissenting opinions of the members of the Central Electoral Commission;

- the copy of the minutes of the September 29, 1996 session of the Central Electoral Commission;

- the copies of the protocols of final, tabulated results of the voting in the regions and the copies of the dissenting opinions of the members of the regional electoral commissions;

- information on the complaints filed, according to the law, with the Central Electoral Commission and regional commissions and regarding the discussion of such complaints;

- the resolutions of the Central Electoral Commission on the "Procedure on the Inclusion of the Citizens of the Republic of Armenia Recruited into the Army and Military Training Camps in Electoral Rolls and the Voting Procedure based on These Rolls" and on the "Verification Procedure in Regional Electoral Commissions''.

The Constitutional Court requested and received data on the result of the elections of the President of the Republic of Armenia from 930 communities and data from protocols of 1,155 precinct commissions (including all precincts of Yerevan).

The Constitutional Court studied the documents listed and asked the parties and invited witnesses to explain or clarify some of them.

The Constitutional Court received references from the Supreme Court and the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia, that there had been no appeals to the courts of general jurisdiction regarding the presidential elections.

Upon the request of the Constitutional Court, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs submitted the complete English text and the Armenian translation of the final report of the ODIHR, dated October 16, 1996, on the elections of the President of the Republic of Armenia.

The following types of documents were submitted by the Candidate for President V. Manoukian: 1. dissenting opinions of the candidates' proxies and the members of the electoral commissions, protocols and other documents of different nature; 2. references and analyses based on the above mentioned documents and prepared by the representatives of the appellant; 3. copies of the final protocols of electoral commissions.

The first group of documents, constituting the appellant's main contention about the violations indicated to have taken place in different electoral commissions and precincts, was signed by three percent of the appellant's proxies having participated in the organization, conduct and oversight of the elections. The examination of these documents revealed that a considerable portion is merely based on impressions, suppositions and unverified rumors, and hence may not serve as evidence.

In these documents, 14% of the complaints pertain to the tabulation of election results. The remaining documents deal with the preparatory stages and organization of the voting process.

In order to verify the documents from individual precincts and to examine the facts presented in the final report of the OSCE observer mission, the Court organized a special investigation of all documents from 162 electoral precincts, principally including those precincts that were mentioned by the appellant to be subject for verification.

As a result of its investigation, the Court finds that in precincts 8/18, 8/21, 6/37, 7/8, 7/25, 7/33, 11/3, 11/23, 5/7, 5/13, 5/15, 5/20, 5/27, 5/33, 5/19, 7/20, 3/25, 4/4, 1/2 of Yerevan the documentation serving as a basis for voting corresponds to the officially tabulated data.

Similarly, all figures were in conformity in precincts 23/1, 22/1, 17/1, 12/1, 45/1, 27/1, 67/1, of Kotaik, 47/1, 58/1, 91/1, 53/1, 2/1, 2/2, 16/2, 110/1, 3/1, 51/1, and 68/1 of Aragatsotn, 68/1, 81/1, 44/1, 40/1, 20/1,52/1, 50/1, 56/1, 45/1, 4/1, 4/2, 4/3 of Ararat, 27/1, 29/1, 40/1, 47/1, 56/1, 70/1, 83/1, 76/1, 52/1, 7/1, 85/1, 80/1, 75/1, 1/9, 2/13, of Armavir, 45/1, 37/1, 44/1, 24/1, 13/1, 21/1, 55/1 of Tavoush, 32/2, 29/1, 6/1, 12/1, of Vayots-Dzor, 12/1, 29/1, 27/1, 38/1, 52/1, 95/1, 69/1, 104/1, 107/1, 102/1, 6/8 of Lory, 44/1, 44/2, 68/1, 23/1, 27/1, 28/3, 39/1, 31/1, 31/2, 54/1, 11/1, 11/2, 45/1, 45/4, 45/6, 37/1 of Gegharkounik, 3/2, 29/1, 43/1, 73/1, 64/1, 50/1, 17/1, 1/7 of Shirak, a total of 110 precincts.

A discrepancy of 3-5 votes between the final protocols and the documentation serving as the basis for voting was observed at 41 precincts.

There was a difference of 88 votes between the actual and registered number of coupons at precinct 3/28 in Yerevan, while the registered number of votes for Vazgen Manoukian was 101 votes less than the actual result at precinct 28/1 in Gegharkunik, .

The invalidation of 292 and 183 ballots, at Yerevan's 3/33 and 6/2 precincts respectively is questionable.

In precincts 5/31 and 5/11 of Yerevan, the same 8 and 3 voters are included in the main rolls as well as the supplemental rolls. In precinct 7/4, 28 officers were included in the rolls together with recruited military personnel, nine of whom did not take part in the ballot.

Based on this investigation, the Prosecutor General's Office instituted criminal proceedings in connection with charges of a stolen ballot box at precinct 6/22 in Yerevan, and in connection with charges of document falsification at precincts 6/30 in Yerevan, 17/1 in Ararat and 42/1 in Vayots-Dzor.

Criminal proceedings were also instituted in connection with charges of stolen ballot papers and document falsification in precincts 3/1 in Vayots-Dzor 3/1 and 28/1 in Gegharkunik.

The Constitutional Court deems it necessary that the Office of the Prosecutor General also consider the facts indicating that certain shortcomings may have taken place in the work of the regional electoral commission of Yerevan, and to consider the discrepancies between the data in the final protocols presented by the appellant and the official data in precincts 11/6 and 11/30 in Yerevan, 21/1, 48/1 in Aragatsotn and precincts 59/2 and 93/1 in Armavir.

In comparing the election protocols from 1,035 electoral commissions provided by V. Manoukian's proxies and the official data from the same electoral commissions, the Court found some discrepancies only in the data of 9 precincts.

The investigation of specific circumstances of separate of violations of law that are claimed by the appellant to have taken place during the preparation of the elections or during the elections and the tabulation of votes are beyond the jurisdiction of the Constitutional Court.

The Constitutional Court considers that the Candidates for the President of the Republic and their proxies did not avail themselves of their full rights under the law to settle disputes that have arisen prior to or during the elections and in the course of the tabulation of election results.

The "Law of the Republic of Armenia on the Election of the President of the Republic of Armenia" (Articles 9, 10, 11, 13, 18, 19, 21, 30) provides for appeals against the resolutions and actions of electoral commissions and obliges the superior commissions to review and invalidate any illegal resolutions and actions of the subordinate electoral commissions. Article 13 of this Law addressing the procedure of filing a complaint against the resolutions and actions of electoral commissions, provides for their appeal to the superior electoral commission or in a court. However resolutions pertaining to the tabulation of election results and voter coupons may be contested with the superior, regional and central, electoral commissions. The resolutions of the Central Electoral Commission, with the exception of those pertaining to the outcome of the elections, may be appealed to the Supreme Court.

Despite the availability of such appeal procedures, the Court's investigation has revealed that the representatives of the appellants have practically not availed themselves of their rights under the law.

In its turn, the Central Electoral Commission and regional electoral commissions have also failed to verify effectively the election results in precincts and communities, thus adding to the distrust in the election results.

Despite the manifest improvement in the election legislation, the Constitutional Court recognizes that shortcomings and omissions in "The Law of the Republic of Armenia on the Election of the President of the Republic of Armenia" and "The Law of the Republic of Armenia on the Elections of Local Self-Governing Bodies" have had a negative impact on the organization, conduct and tabulation of election results.

The Constitutional Court considers that the formation of electoral commissions on the basis of party representation, as prescribed by Articles 7, 8, 9 and 10 of "The Law of the Republic of Armenia on the Elections of Local Self-Governing Bodies" is not justifiable.

The organization of the elections among the military, the verification of their ballot results and the evaluation of discrepancies in their protocol data are incomplete or deficient. The procedures for tabulating ballot results and compiling protocols needs to be simplified and better clarified.

The Constitutional Court finds that the Central Electoral Commission has carried out the tabulation of the results of the September 22, 1996 election of the President of the Republic of Armenia in conformity with its legal mandate.

Upon examination of the final protocol of the Central Electoral Commission, the Constitutional Court finds that in general there is a correspondence between the tabulation results of the regional electoral commissions and those in the final protocol of the Central Electoral Commission as well as a correspondence between the various indices of the final protocol of the Central Electoral Commission. This confirms that the Central Electoral Commission did not distort the voting tallies for the election of the President of the Republic of Armenia and that the voting tallies from the regional electoral commissions were counted accurately.

In light of the significant discrepancies registered between the number of voters having voted particularly in Yerevan and the corresponding number of coupons and ballots, the Constitutional Court compared the data from 303 precincts and 12 communal electoral commissions in Yerevan. The Court found a number of mathematical errors and discrepancies. Specifically, the city commission has counted 14,570 less electors on electoral rolls and 21,536 more actual voters. The real difference between the number of people who actually voted in Yerevan and the total number of ballots in the ballot boxes amounts to only 1,114. The difference between the number of people who actually voted and the number of coupons is 919.

If the results from 303 precincts in Yerevan, are taken after verification as a basis for the tabulation of the Presidential election results, it appears that these will not differ substantially from the data of the Central Electoral Commission. The ratio of votes cast for different candidates for the President remains almost unchanged.

In order to verify the accuracy of the tabulation of the Presidential election results by the regional electoral commissions, the Constitutional Court examined the complete data of the election results, broken by communities, as first published by the "Hayastany Hanrapetoutyoun" on October 22, 1996 and as submitted by the Central Election Commission upon the request of the Court. Based on this examination, the proportion of votes cast for the candidates for the President were also found to correspond with the final data of the Central Electoral Commission.

Despite the differences between the number of ballots cast and coupons found in ballot boxes, or the difference between the number of those who actually voted and the number of coupons, or the difference between the number of actual voters and the total number of votes cast for the candidates and the discrepancies in the data of the protocols, the Court finds that the number of votes cast for the candidate declared to have been elected as the President of the Republic by the Central Electoral Commission, exceeds half the total number of votes cast for all candidates.

Based on the outcome of the investigation of this case, in accordance with Article 51, paragraph 3 of Article 100, and Article 102 of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, and in accordance with paragraph 3 of Article 5 and Articles 67 and 68 of the "Law of the Republic of Armenia on the Constitutional Court," the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia decides: