Civil Contract falls short of amendment threshold

PanARMENIAN.Net - According to the preliminary election results published by the Central Electoral Commission, the Civil Contract party does not secure the constitutional majority required for constitutional amendments, falling short by six votes. This was stated in a Facebook post by former justice minister, former National Assembly deputy speaker, and lawyer Arpine Hovhannisyan.

She also noted that the Prosperous Armenia Party failed to clear the electoral threshold.

“The Central Electoral Commission has published the preliminary election results. As a result, the Prosperous Armenia Party did not overcome the electoral threshold. Following the application of the relevant formulas (including the allocation of seats reserved for national minorities and the redistribution effect of votes), the distribution of mandates in the National Assembly will be as follows:

Civil Contract Party — 64 seats,

Strong Armenia Alliance — 29 seats,

Armenia Alliance — 12 seats.

Thus, the Civil Contract party will independently form the government and elect the prime minister. At the same time, it secures a three-fifths (3/5) majority of all parliamentary seats, allowing it to adopt constitutional laws and elect a number of key officials.

However, it does not secure the support of two-thirds (2/3) of all deputies and therefore does not possess the constitutional majority required to amend the Constitution,” the post said.

Hovhannisyan urged opposition representatives not to rush into holding press conferences to justify why they would accept parliamentary mandates, nor to hurry in declaring that the authorities do or do not possess a certain level of power.

“We all remember similar statements made after previous elections, and we also remember who later supported the Civil Contract party during various votes.

If there is something worth focusing on right now, it is the strength of your electoral lists and the political reliability of the deputies who enter parliament. The issue is not only today’s distribution of mandates; it is also whether those mandates and votes will maintain their political affiliation and positions in the future.

P.S. If mandates are not accepted, the National Assembly is still formed. Unclaimed mandates are not transferred to any other political force,” she wrote.

Earlier, Nurlan Seitimov, head of the CIS Observer Mission, stated that the June 7 parliamentary elections were conducted in accordance with Armenia’s Electoral Code and were open and competitive.