"Strong Armenia" demands the annulment of the parliamentary election results

Samvel Karapetyan's bloc has decided to seek the invalidation of the June 7 vote, stated Narek Karapetyan, leader of the Strong Armenia list.

As reported by the Caucasian Knot, the opposition parties Prosperous Armenia and Wings of Unity, as well as the Armenia bloc, demanded that the election commission recount the votes at 555 polling stations, while Strong Armenia demanded that the results at one polling station be annulled. As a result of the recount, 140 votes were added to the Prosperous Armenia party's tally, but late in the evening of June 11, the Central Election Commission of Armenia annulled the results at two polling stations due to violations, and the party lost 213 votes.

The "Strong Armenia" bloc, which took second place in the parliamentary elections, has decided on its plans to appeal the results. On June 12, representatives of "Strong Armenia" will appeal to the Central Election Commission demanding that the vote results be invalidated, stated Narek Karapetyan, a member of the party council and the number one candidate on the bloc's list.

According to Karapetyan, the bloc will demand a recount of the votes cast for the ruling Civil Contract party. If the appeal to the CEC is unsuccessful, "Strong Armenia" will appeal to the Constitutional Court, reports "Armenia News."

In his video address, Karapetyan Jr. recalled that as a result of the recount "at dozens and hundreds of polling stations," the number of votes for the Civil Contract party had significantly decreased.

He also stated that the ruling party had massively deployed administrative resources, but even with their help, it was unable to garner even 50% of the vote.

"You saw how military personnel and civil servants were being organized to vote for the Civil Contract party (...) This is a force that doesn't even have three-fifths of the mandates and is incapable of amending the Constitution, as Aliyev ordered. But we will go further and seek a review of the election results," Panorama.am quotes Narek Karapetyan as saying.

The organized voting of military personnel, mentioned by Karapetyan, became the basis for the annulment of the results of the elections at two polling stations located in Syunik and Yerevan. Meanwhile, the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party stated that it would appeal the decision, as it had received a large number of votes at those polling stations.

Following the annulment of the voting results at two polling stations, Wings of Unity Party leader Arman Tatoyan accused Civil Contract of stealing citizens' votes and Prosperous Armenia's mandates.

"The annulment of the voting results at these polling stations is an illegal and arbitrary decision based on the narrow political interests of Civil Contract," News.am quotes him as saying.