Armenia’s Constitutional Court lets election result stand

Serge Sargsian is elected the president of Armenia

by Armen Hakobyan

Published: Saturday March 15, 2008

Yerevan - On March 8, the Constitutional Court (CC) of Armenia issued its final verdict on the results of the presidential elections. The CC examined petitions submitted by presidential candidates Tigran Karapetian and Levon Ter-Petrossian, in which they disputed the final results of the February 19 elections as announced in a protocol of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC).

After hearings and deliberations, the CC decided: "To leave in force decision No. 24a of February 24, 2008, of the Central Electoral Commission on the election of the president of the Republic." This meant that the prime minister, leader of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), Serge Sargsian was elected as Armenia's third president. "According to the second clause of Article 102 of the Constitution, this decision is final and takes effect from the moment of publication."

This outcome did not please the former president of Armenia, Mr. Ter-Petrossian. He offered his assessment of the CC decision at a press conference for foreign media. According to the Russian news agency Regnum, Mr. Ter-Petrossian stated: "The Constitutional Court placed a mine under the legitimacy of Serge Sargsian's presidency." Mr. Ter-Petrossian repeated to the media his assertion and statements made in the Constitutional Court that the prime minister had no right to take part in the elections because he was simultaneously continuing to fulfill his duties as prime minister. The former president also reiterated his thesis that elections cannot be held during a state of emergency - and that the process of appealing to the Constitutional Court is also considered part of the election.

"Ter-Petrossian was going to confrontation from the beginning"

In an interview with the Armenian Reporter, the president of the National Democratic Party (NDP) Shavarsh Kocharian, spoke about the CC decision, the tragedy that occurred on March 1-2, as well as post­election developments.

In 1996 when Mr. Ter-Petrossian was named the winner of the presidential contest, the united opposition and a significant part of society believed that the winner was Vazgen Manukian, leader of the National Democratic Union (NDU). The opposition, regardless of pressures, appealed to the CC. At that time, Shavarsh Kocharian was one of the representatives of the NDU at the CC. Mr. Kocharian drew parallels between the current developments and court processes and events of 1996.

"In 1996, the evidence we presented to the CC was incomparably more substantial than that presented by Levon Ter-Petrossian's representatives today. Secondly, a state of emergency was also in place at the time. It was not declared officially, but the situation was much graver, especially for the opposition. We presented dozens of witness lists but they couldn't appear before the Constitutional Court because they were under arrest. Moreover, our documents, including those from Vazgen Manukian's campaign headquarters, were confiscated. I am talking about physical evidence related to the process itself. It was just that our evidentiary base was so voluminous that it didn't hinder us from mounting the suit. Today, no one confiscated documents from Levon Ter-Petrossian that would have hindered him from appealing to the Constitutional Court.

"As I already mentioned, in 1996 many people were being detained: our proxies, opposition candidates. Kim Balayan, [now] a member of the Constitutional Court, had been also detained and then released. During the [recent] court proceedings, Kim Balayan, as a CC member, was hearing the case and was one of those to pronounce the final judgment. That fact alone is enough to demonstrate how comical and bitter it all was.

"Levon Ter-Petrossian is the last person to fight against injustice. He himself laid the groundwork for the injustice that we see today. It applies both to the decision of the Constitutional Court of that time, and to the overall atmosphere of terror in the country. Numerous people suffered cruel beatings in 1996. Cruel to the extent that they ended up in hospitals.... In 1996, no one was spared. Back then it didn't matter who had been arrested; the moment they were in custody they were brutally beaten.

"We try to compare the situations because we need to understand where we faltered and why all of this started. And if today we experience - and I really believe that we do - many unacceptable things in our society, we need to understand their roots. People do not trust the electoral system, and this distrust is justified. So, here we must clearly understand what the problem is."

When asked about the problems with the electoral code of the country, Mr. Kocharian said that while it is important to streamline the laws, we must realize that the problems with elections run much deeper, even if we had perfect laws.

After the Constitutional Court handed down its decision, Mr. Ter-Petrossian rejected it, referring to the fact that it was made during a state of emergency. Shavarsh Kocharian believes that the former president and his supporters are looking for excuses and arguments to illustrate that they do not agree with the decision. "In reality the problem is not that the state of emergency hindered the work of the Constitutional Court, but that Levon Ter-Petrossian had some other scenario in mind. If there is no state of emergency, then they can put pressure on the CC, and more importantly on the president of the court, Gagik Harutiunian, and all the other members," he said. (In 1991-96, during Mr. Ter-Petrossian's first term, Mr. Harutiunian was his vice president).