RA CEC issues lengthy statement regarding its refusal to schedule  re-runs at three polling stations

ArmInfo.  The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) of Armenia issued a lengthy statement regarding its refusal to schedule re-runs at three polling stations where the parliamentary election results were previously annulled. As a result, Gagik Tsarukyan's Prosperous Armenia party failed to enter parliament by a mere 160 votes. As a result, the picture of the new parliament  has taken on a completely different appearance. The CEC of Armenia  stated that they should not automatically schedule re-runs after the  annulment of the voting results at any polling station.

"When making this decision, the Central Election Commission must  consider protecting the true will of voters and ensuring the  legitimacy of the election results. Therefore, the CEC must choose a  measure that is necessary in the given circumstances, proportionate,  and does not cause more distortion than the violation, the  consequences of which must be remedied. In the case of a partial  repeat vote, the following problem arises. Voters who participated in  the main vote cast their ballots when the overall result was not yet  known. They did not know who was leading, how many votes there were,  which party would pass the threshold, and what impact their vote  would have on the final result," the Central Election Commission said  in a statement.

The Central Election Commission of Armenia believes that voters  participating in the repeat vote will vote in a different situation:  for them, the overall picture may be known (in this case, 99.8  percent of voters).  The Central Election Commission is confident  that, under these circumstances, the will of voters can be formed not  on the basis of their initial political preferences or free  expression of will, but by calculating the possibility of adjusting  the already known result.

"This risk is generally characterized as tactical voting. The Venice  Commission also recognized that partial re-votes are not always an  appropriate measure. In its 2025 urgent report, it notes that if  irregularities affect only a few polling stations, then retaliatory  measures could, in principle, be limited to those stations.  However,  this approach has an important exception: partial re-votes cannot be  an appropriate measure if a new vote in those stations, due to the  possibility of tactical voting, does not guarantee a fair election  result.

From the perspective of equal suffrage, the problem is also obvious.  Re-elections can undermine the equality of voters, since one group of  voters finds themselves in significantly different starting  conditions than others," the Central Election Commission added.

Referring to the Constitutional Court, the CEC of Armenia noted that  if the will of voters participating in the main vote has already been  legally expressed, then a subsequent re-vote should not have a  secondary and deliberate impact on that will.

"Therefore, when calling a repeat vote, the Central Election  Commission must also consider whether the same free and equal  environment will be ensured during the repeat vote as on the main  election day. Does the known result create a risk of tactical voting?  Will the rights of voters who have already cast their ballots legally  be violated? Have sources of illegal or corrupt influence been  neutralized? If the answers to these questions indicate that the  repeat vote will not ensure a free, equal, and fair result, then it  should not be called. Not calling a repeat vote in such a case does  not mean ignoring the violation. It means refusing to pursue measures  that could further distort the will of the voters. The Central  Election Commission should be guided not by the logic of mechanical  re-election, but by the principles of free and equal elections,  proportionality, and the protection of the true will of the voters,  as guaranteed by the Constitution, as an independent body overseeing  the legality of elections in accordance with the Constitution," the  institute emphasized.