CODICES

ARM-2003-2-003

a) Armenia / b) Constitutional Court / c)  / d) 01-07-2003 / e) DCC-434 / f) On the dispute on the outcome of the elections of the National Assembly by the majority system in constituency no. 16 held on 25 May 2003 / g) Tegekagir (Official Gazette) / h) ..

 

Keywords of the Systematic Thesaurus:

 
 
1.3.4.5.2

Constitutional Justice - Jurisdiction - Types of litigation - Electoral disputes - Parliamentary elections.

1.4.8.7

Constitutional Justice - Procedure - Preparation of the case for trial - Evidence.

4.9.1

Institutions - Elections and instruments of direct democracy - Electoral Commission.

4.9.7.1

Institutions - Elections and instruments of direct democracy - Preliminary procedures - Electoral rolls.

4.9.9.3

Institutions - Elections and instruments of direct democracy - Voting procedures - Voting.

5..40

Fundamental Rights - Civil and political rights - Right to self fulfilment.


Keywords of the alphabetical index:

 

Electoral Commission, members / Election, invalidity.

 

Headnotes:

 

Where, in violation of the Electoral Code, a person who has no right to be a member of a precinct electoral commission is appointed as such, thereby making the electoral commission not legitimate, the voting results of that precinct must be declared unreliable.

 

According to the Constitution, the Constitutional Court must consider a case and deliver a decision within 30 days after the receipt of an application. Consequently, where a competent state body fails within that period to conduct and present the results to the Constitutional Court of a proper investigation concerning an allegation by an applicant of certain falsifications at some precincts during the electoral process, the Constitutional Court must declare the voting results in those electoral precincts unreliable.

 

Summary:

 

A candidate, who participated in the National Assembly elections held on 25 May 2003 in Constituency no. 16, applied to the Constitutional Court for a declaration that the elections in that constituency were invalid. The candidate argued that the violations of the Electoral Code that had taken place during the organisation and conduct of the elections had influenced the results of the elections.

 

The appellant argued, inter alia, that a person who had no right to be a member of a precinct electoral commission had been included in a precinct electoral commission; other persons had voted in the place of those who should have voted; the voters' lists that had been posted at some precinct centers differed from those that had been used by the precinct electoral commissions; the constituency electoral commission had not properly conducted the verification of the conformity of the protocols of the precinct electoral commissions with the actual results of voting; in two precincts, the ballot papers had been altered during the summarisation of the voting results and the signatures of the commission members on the ballot papers had been falsified; and the constituency electoral commission had ordered and circulated more ballot papers than was provided for by law.

 

During the hearings, the Constitutional Court found that the electoral commission of Constituency no. 16 had in fact ordered more ballot papers than was provided for by the Electoral Code. The Constitutional Court also found that, in violation of the Electoral Code, a person who did not have the right to be a member of an electoral commission had been appointed member of a precinct electoral commission (Precinct no. 0365). The Constitutional Court held that that fact made the voting results for that precinct unreliable.

 

As to the applicant's allegation concerning the falsification of the signatures of electoral commission's members on ballot papers at two precincts (no. 0347 and no. 0351), the Prosecutor's Office, to which the applicant had referred the matter for investigation, had failed to conduct the necessary investigation within the period provided by law and to present the results of the investigation to the Constitutional Court. Not having received from the Prosecutor's Office any sufficient information that could disprove or prove the allegations of the applicant, the Constitutional Court, which had to rule on the electoral dispute within 30 days, declared the voting results in these two electoral precincts unreliable.

 

The Court, in determining the difference between the votes cast for the applicant and the elected candidate (1118), the number (90) of inaccurate and unreliable voting results of the three precincts (no. 0347, no. 0351 and no. 0365), found it impossible to determine the elected candidate.

 

The Constitutional Court declared the elections in Constituency no. 16 invalid.

 

Languages:

 

Armenian.