ARM-2002-2-002

a) Armenia / b) Constitutional Court / c)  / d) 29-06-2002 / e) DCC-367 / f) On the dispute on the outcome of the additional elections of the National Assembly in constituency # 67 held on 19 May 2002 / g) Tegekagir (Official Gazette) / h) .

Keywords of the Systematic Thesaurus:

Keywords of the alphabetical index:

Election, additional, constituency / Election, electoral law, infringement / Election, voters' list, inaccuracies.

Headnotes:

If the drawing up of electoral rolls is not conducted in the manner provided for by law, the necessary preconditions will not be met for holding elections in compliance with the requirements of [ENG-ARM-A-3] Article 3 of the Constitution (governing electoral rights and the principle of holding elections/referenda).

If a citizen has not been sentenced to imprisonment and is not serving his or her penalty in prison on the basis of a judgment that has entered into force‚ he or she shall not be deprived of the right to vote and to stand for election.

Summary:

A candidate who participated in the additional National Assembly elections in constituency # 67, held on 19 May 2002, appealed to the Constitutional Court for a declaration that the elections in that constituency had been invalid. The candidate argued that violations of the Electoral Code had taken place during the organisation and running of the elections to such an extent that they had influenced the results of the elections.

In particular, the appellant argued that violations of pre-election campaign rules and of voting procedures had been committed, and that voter lists were not in conformity with the reality on the day of voting. In one of the precincts the voter lists were not compiled in the manner prescribed by law, and about 15% of voters had been deprived of their right to vote because of the inaccuracies of the voter lists.

The Constitutional Court, in its decision of 21 June 1999, had ruled, inter alia, that there had been serious flaws in the process of drawing up the voter lists in the same constituency, # 67. But instead of these defects and omissions being corrected in the meantime, they had been enlarged and extended to include a greater range of defects and omissions.

While adopting a decision on this case‚ the Court took [ENG-ARM-A-27] Article 27 of the Constitution (eligibility to vote and to stand for election) as its reference, as well as the relevant provisions of the Electoral Code.

The Court found that the massive violations of the requirements of the Electoral Code that had occurred in the process of the organisation and running of the elections, which had affected the outcome of the elections, showed that the electoral commissions had disregarded the observations and decisions made on the results of previous elections (including decisions adopted by the Court). During the organisation and conduct of the additional elections in the constituency in question, the requirements of Articles 9.4 (drawing up and administration of voter lists), 11.3 (requirements with respect to voter lists), 13.2 (providing voter lists to the precinct electoral commissions), 42.11 (powers of the constituency electoral commission) and 50.2 of the Electoral Code (preparation for voting) and other necessary preconditions had not been met for holding the elections in accordance with the requirements of [ENG-ARM-A-3] Article 3 of the Constitution (concerning electoral rights and the principle of holding elections/referenda).

The appellant party also argued that one of the candidates participating in the additional elections in the constituency at issue was not entitled to participate in the elections, by virtue of [ENG-ARM-A-27] Article 27 of the Constitution, as he had been sentenced to a correctional measure by a court of first instance and was serving his penalty in his work-place. In response to this argument‚ the Court, having evaluated the practice of implementation of laws, examined the constitutional experience of other countries and based its answer also on the requirements of [ENG-ARM-A-27] Article 27 of the Constitution, according to which citizens sentenced to imprisonment by a court judgment that has entered into force, and serving their penalty, cannot vote or stand for election. The Court found that if the citizen had not been sentenced to imprisonment and was not serving his or her penalty in the prison on the basis of a judgment that had entered into force‚ then he or she would not be deprived of the right to vote and to stand for election.

The Court declared the additional elections in the above-mentioned constituency invalid and addressed the materials on the violations revealed in the process of the examination of the case to the General Prosecutor's Office for appropriate examination.

Languages:

Armenian.