23:00, 13 March 2013

Armenia's CC refuses to call president to election-contesting trial

Today, the Constitutional Court (CC) of Armenia dismissed the petition lodged by the representative of the ex-presidential candidate Raffi Ovannisyan to summon the incumbent Serzh Sargsyan to the session.

The petition was presented by Zarui Postanjyan, an MP from the "Heritage" Party. "The answer to the question about organization of the election should be given by Sargsyan; and his explanations should be given in the courtroom," said Postanjyan.

In response, David Arutyunyan, Serzh Sargsyan's representative at the trial, noted that "the CC is not the place for satisfying one's curiosity."

In the end, the court decided to reject the petition. "The third party at the CC comprises Serzh Sargsyan's authorized persons, who give satisfactory answers to questions; there is no need to involve Sargsyan as a witness," says the CC's judgment.

The court also rejected the petition of Raffi Ovannisyan's supporters to open the sealed ballot boxes and the demand of Andreas Gukasyan to open boxes from those constituencies, where Sargsyan scored highest percentage of votes.

Author: Inessa Sargsyan

Source: CK correspondent