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Official Statement of Plaintiff Levon Ter-Petrosyan, as addressed to court March 5

Your Honor Chairman of the Constitutional Court, highly respected members of the Constitutional Court,

I have to make it clear from the very beginning that I will refrain from political evaluations to the event and will dwell on several purely legal accentuations. Although my legal team addressed them, I consider it necessary to do that. Nevertheless, since it is my first public speech after 6.30 am March 1, I want to take the occasion to express my deepest regret over the March 1 tragedy and extend my deepest condolences to the families of all people who died.

And now my speech proper.

I want to invite your attention to Article 78 of the Electoral Code. From the moment of registration, presidential candidates who are in state service or work in local government bodies, are relieved of implementing their working duties and do not have the right to use the advantages of their official position. In case of the nomination of the president of the republic as a presidential candidate, or according to the Constitution, the acting president of the republic - the chairman of the National Assembly or the prime minister – he continues the implementation of their powers, however must not use the advantages of their official position. This article is very specific and imperative. Imperative articles are not subject to interpretation. The incumbent prime minister could be nominated and registered only under one circumstance – if he had the status of the acting president. The incumbent prime minister does not have this status. I consider that his registration was from the very beginning unlawful, and therefore illegitimate.

Secondly, under Article 53.1 of the Constitution, elections of the republic’s president are not held in the martial state or state of emergency and the republic’s president continues the implementation of his duties. The elections of the president means the whole electoral process – beginning from the registration to the end of the term set for protesting [the election outcome] – that is the verdict of the Constitutional Court. At this moment, we are in the process of elections. Therefore, since it is the state of emergency now, these elections cannot be considered either valid or lawful.

Thirdly, the fact of the unilateral coverage of the Constitutional Court’s proceedings is unclear. The plaintiff does not have the opportunity to provide coverage of the course of the Constitutional Court proceedings. The principle of equality is broken. Besides, many of the witnesses required in the course of the proceedings, who are supporters of our movement and activists of my campaign headquarters, are under arrest. These are our key witnesses. Therefore, under the circumstances, any verdict of the Constitutional Court, besides recognizing the elections as null and void, will cause a shortage of legitimacy, which is dangerous for the future of the country, and for the prestige of the Constitutional Court. I cannot imagine how any verdict arrived at by the Constitutional Court in these conditions will be accepted by me, the plaintiff, the people and the international community. That is, the state of having illegitimate authorities will always hang over the head of the Republic of Armenia. I consider as a way-out the proposals in yesterday’s statement of the European Union presidency, which I will present to you and will ask you to attach to the case. I fully accept these proposals, considering them to be the program, platform of our manner of action during this meeting of the Constitutional Court.

They are the following points:

To end the state of emergency, release all arrested people, provide equal information opportunities, to conduct an international independent investigation of the March 1 events and start a dialogue with the authorities.

I accept all these points, as I said, I consider it to be the basis for our activities.

Thank you for attention.