Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the daily digest of Armenia-related top news as of 19.07.21:

  • The Constitutional Court of Armenia has decided to uphold the decision of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) on the snap National Assembly elections, said president of the Constitutional Court Arman Dilanyan.

The opposition "Armenia" and "I Have Honor" blocs, as well as of the opposition Zartonk (Awakening) and Hayots Hayrenik (Armenian Homeland) parties had petitioned to the Constitutional Court to challenge the final results—publicized by the CEC—of the snap parliamentary elections on June 20.

The respective Constitutional Court hearing had started on July 9.

  • The National Assembly of Armenia will hold its first session on July 26, former Minister of Justice of Armenia Gevorg Danielyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

Based on the results of the snap parliamentary elections, Civil Contract Party received 71 mandates, ‘Armenia’ bloc received 29 mandates, and ‘I Have Honor’ bloc received 7 mandates.

There were 21 political parties and 4 blocs running in the snap parliamentary elections. The passing threshold for political parties was 5%, and the one for blocs was 7%.

  • Alen Simonyan is the candidate of the Civil Contract Party for Speaker of the National Assembly, My Step faction MP Hrachya Hakobyan told RL/RFE Armenian Service.

Asked if the political party is considering appointing current parliamentary speaker Ararat Mirzoyan to a position in government, Hakobyan said he didn’t have any information about Mirzoyan since the discussions are mainly held by the political party’s board and he’s not a member.

  • The US Embassy in Armenia has issued a statement in response to Armenian News-NEWS.am's inquiry on the position of the US—as an OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair country—on Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s statement that "there is no more Karabakh conflict."

“Special attention should be paid to the achievement of a final comprehensive and sustainable settlement on the basis of the elements and principles well-known to the sides. We continue to call on the parties to resume high-level political dialogue under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group at the earliest opportunity,” the US Embassy added.

Vaccinations against the coronavirus are carried out in Armenia on a voluntary basis; moreover, people can get these shots not only at the polyclinics of the country but also at a number of spots in the capital Yerevan.

Armenia uses AstraZeneca, CoronaVac, and Sputnik V vaccines.

These vaccinations are free of charge and intended for Armenian citizens and foreigners, alike.

As of Monday morning, 92 new cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in Armenia, and the total number of these cases has reached 227,522 in the country.

  • On early Monday morning, Armenia’s Olympic silver medalist Simon Martirosyan, as well as European champions Artur Davtyan, Ferdinand Karapetyan, Hovhannes Bachkov, and a number of other athletes have left for Tokyo where they will compete at the 32nd Summer Olympics.

The Armenian national teams’ head coaches and these athletes’ personal trainers are accompanying these Olympians to Tokyo.

They will arrive in the Japanese capital on Tuesday.

There are four days left until the start of the 32nd Summer Olympics.