Friday, November 10 2017 17:18

ArmInfo. The Constitutional Court of Armenia passed a verdict on the suit of the "Elk" and "Tsarukyan" bloc regarding the constitutionality of the election of the mayor of Vanadzor.

According to the verdict of the Constitutional Court, decisions N  2-H, 7-H, 8-H, 9-H adopted at the first meeting of the Vanadzor  Council of Elders of March 31, 2017 are unconstitutional. This  verdict of the Constitutional Court comes into force on March 31st.

In a conversation with journalists, the member of the Elk bloc Edmond  Marukyan noted that this verdict of the Constitutional Court confirms  the fact that all meetings of the Vanadzor Elders Council, starting  from the very first, were unconstitutional. Therefore, he stressed,  the Council of Elders of Vanadzor should be dissolved and new  elections should be conducted.

In the elections to the Council of Elders of Vanadzor, the ruling  Republican Party failed to win a majority vote, receiving 15 mandates  out of 32. Nevertheless, during the secret, closed ballot in the  elections of the mayor of Vanadzor, three opposition representatives  violated the joint agreement of the three opposition forces ("Orinats  Yerkir" now "Armenian Revival", "Enlightened Armenia" party, now part  of the "Elk" bloc and the "Prosperous Armenia" party, now part of the  "Tsarukyan"), supported the candidate from RPA Mamikon Aslanyan.  According to ArmInfo, two of the three "renegades" were  representatives of the "Orinats Yerkir", moreover, one of them -  Arkady Pelyshyan was a candidate for mayor from this party.   Nevertheless, already during the meetings of the Council of Elders of  Vanadzor the "renegades" did not venture openly to oppose the  decision of the political forces they represented and did not  participate in the meetings. Thus, the meetings of the Council took  place without securing a quorum that is, decisions were made by a  minority of votes, therefore, were unconstitutional. This fact was  proved by the representatives of the bloc "Elk" and "Tsarukyan" in  the Constitutional Court.