The election results do not reflect the will of the people. The representative of the opposition "Armenia" bloc—led by second resident Robert Kocharyan—lawyer Aram Vardevanyan, stated this Wednesday in his closing remarks at the hearing of the Constitutional Court, and regarding the results of the snap parliamentary on June 20.

He reminded that unlike other courts, the Constitutional Court is the only court that can find out the whole context of the elections. Vardevanyan stressed that it turned out that the November 9, 2020 document, which assumes thousands of casualties, loss of the homeland, difficult internal political situation, played a key role in that context.

"It has not been safe in the Republic of Armenia since November 9. Citizens are not safe. Our borders are not inviolable. That case is still being investigated, and we know that the enemy [i.e., Azerbaijan] may infiltrate our borders. Consequences are important in context disclosure. And they are the following: The [acting] prime minister [Nikol Pashinyan] has in fact turned into the one-man ruler who has usurped even the powers of the president," said Vardevanyan.

He reminded that this circumstance was mentioned in their petition, and it was not rejected. According to him, it could also have happened under pressure, and as an example he mentioned the fact that when the President returned the decision of the Prime Minister to dismiss a high-ranking military man, he was threatened with impeachment. "In these conditions, it is naive to talk about the lack of pressure," Vardevanyan added.

He referred also to the abuse of administrative resources, which violated the principle of level playing field in elections. "There is a lot of talk about whether the prime minister could have remained as ‘acting’ after his resignation. Why did he decide to continue after resigning?" he asked.

Speaking about the consistency of the authorities, he reminded that there was such a precedent in 1998, when the first president had resigned. "It meant resignation, as in any normal country. Something else happened here by using administrative resources," the lawyer continued.

According to him, it was not possible to submit to the Constitutional Court the full amount of bonus pays, but it is about the billions that were paid after May 10, it is obvious that there is no coincidence here. At the same time, mechanisms of pressure were used on the members of the [‘Armenia’] bloc, hundreds of people were apprehended. There are criminal cases, but there are no defendants. The law enforcement system is not independent, said Vardevanyan.

According to him, the aggressive rhetoric is not the assessment of the “Armenia” bloc, but a legal fact which is confirmed by the administrative court. In his view, the behavior of the police also speaks of a lot, when there were leaflets against the "Armenia" bloc all over the capital Yerevan, whereas the police saw only 10 to 20 in one street.

Vardevanyan has an answer to the question voiced in court that 300 thousand fewer voters participated in this and the 2018 elections. According to him, the voters may not have participated in the elections due to aggressive pressure, “laying on asphalt,” “cutting their hands,” and similar promises.

"The results of these elections do not reflect the will of the people," he said.

"One force has ruled for three years. The Constitution of Armenia is not about that. The Declaration of Independence is not about that either," Vardevanyan added.

He stressed, however, that the Constitutional Court can change the situation. "We [Armenia] are facing serious challenges today, too. The Constitutional Court has the exclusive power to prevent new disasters, new concessions, unexplained documents and actions. This is not a dispute about the election results. The election results do not reflect the will of the people. The picture we see in the Central Electoral Commission decision [on the election results] is distorted," Vardevanyan said, citing the example of one Jemma Martirosyan whose signature was on the voter list, although she is not in Armenia. "The prosecutors were trying to assure that it is a ‘coincidence.’ But how many thousands of such ‘coincidences’ have there been? ” Aram Vardevanyan asked.