Strong Armenia vows lawsuits over accusations

PanARMENIAN.Net - Strong Armenia will file lawsuits against all individuals who have allegedly defamed the political force, party member and lawyer Gohar Meloyan told reporters. She was responding to accusations from government representatives that the party secured support through vote buying.

Meloyan said such claims are, above all, offensive to Armenia’s citizens, Aysor.am reported.

“We must put an end to defamatory manipulations directed against us. We are going to begin filing lawsuits against all those who engage in defamation,” she said.

She noted that the Central Electoral Commission initially presented a draft decision, but the situation differed from usual because an unprecedented number and scale of interventions had been recorded.

Meloyan stressed that it is necessary to determine whether there has been even a single case in which members of the ruling Civil Contract party faced proceedings and were held accountable.

“There is not a single such case, and this is the clearest example of the falsifications that have taken place,” Meloyan said.

Member of parliament Levon Kocharyan stated that the next step would be an appeal to the Constitutional Court, according to http://Factor.am .

He noted that if Prosperous Armenia had received approximately 120–130 more votes, it would have entered parliament. In that case, Civil Contract would not have retained its three-fifths majority.

“Now, at the polling stations whose results were declared invalid, Prosperous Armenia had more than 200 votes combined. In other words, if those votes had been counted, it would have entered parliament and Civil Contract would have lost its three-fifths majority. Yet now the Central Electoral Commission says that this would not have had a significant impact on the final results. If that would not have affected the final outcome, then what would have? You understand, it simply does not withstand any logical scrutiny. The extent of these falsifications is so obvious that, in broad daylight... I don’t know, none of this is normal,” he said.

Kocharyan added that, alongside appealing to the Constitutional Court, opposition partners must jointly determine what other forms of political struggle will be used.

“This is not the issue of a single person. Even if it concerns Prosperous Armenia’s parliamentary seats, it is a matter affecting the overall situation, and I believe such decisions should be made unanimously,” he emphasized.

On June 14, the final results of the June 7 parliamentary elections were published. Civil Contract received 726,819 votes, or 49.7456%; Strong Armenia won 340,006 votes, or 23.2710%; and the Armenia Alliance secured 144,983 votes, or 9.9231%. The Prosperous Armenia party failed to clear the 4% threshold and will not enter parliament, receiving 58,287 votes, or 3.9893%.

Civil Contract will hold 64 seats in parliament, including three seats allocated to representatives of national minorities. The Strong Armenia party will receive 29 seats, including one seat for an Assyrian representative, while the Armenia Alliance will receive 12 seats.