The two-day international conference entitled “The role of constitutional courts in providing democratic elections” took place at the “Ani Plaza” hotel on October 4-5 and was organized by the Constitutional Court of Armenia, the European “Democracy through rights” commission at the European Parliament, the congress of constitutional supervision of developing countries and the constitutional right center of Armenia. The participants included the constitutional courts of various countries, the European Council, the OSCE, as well as representatives of the human rights tribunal and other organizations. Director of the OSCE Yerevan branch Vladimir Pryakhin and director of the Armenian representation of the American Bar Association (ABA) S. Smith both made their welcoming speeches. Chief Secretary of the Venetian Congress of the European Council Joni Bucicio made an opening speech and was present during the conference. Bucicio placed high emphasis on the right calculation of votes after the elections and mentioned the importance of working at a rapid pace. According to him, it’s necessary for all experts to follow up on the electoral process both before and during the elections. He believes that democratic elections are becoming more and more important during the past couple of years and the respect towards human rights is growing. Bucicio also placed emphasis on the fact that each person taking part in the elections “will have free access” to news. “It’s evident that the voting lists must be formed beforehand and that’s exactly when we need to draw our attention to make sure there are no errors. We must draw special attention to the situation after the elections. This plays a very important role for the council of European Ministers,” said Mr. Bucicio. According to him, all countries have constitutional tribunals and councils and that’s a very important structure in order to solve all matters during elections and after. “That way the European constitutional courts have something to think about: they must solve all the problems that come up. The law must be clear and accessible,” he says. He believes that the constitutional court has the right to decide what role the participants play in the elections, however the court may do that only in the end. This mainly concerns the voting right. “The people should not only respect the voting, but rather the entire electoral process and especially the results,” said chief secretary of the Venetian commission of the European Council. The latter also mentioned the fact that the constitutional court must also have the right to consider the election results invalid. What if there are flaws, which have an influence on the results? What to do? In response to this question, J. Bucicio said: “First of all, we have to make sure what the flaws are and how they influence the elections,” and said that complaints can be filed only after checking all the results of the elections. “It’s also very important to do everything soon because the world can’t wait until the solution of the problems. That’s why the Constitutional Court must work quickly too,” says Bucicio. According to him, the constitutional court must have the right to reach the verdict for other courts. “When elections aren’t that transparent, this means that the given institution isn’t legitimate enough,” said Bucicio. It’s worth mentioning that besides the many representatives from Europe, there are also leaders of Armenian political parties such as the Armenian Ramkavar party, the Armenian Christian Democratic Union, “Strong Homeland”, leaders of Armenian Autonomous Union and other party representatives, president of the Constitutional Court of Armenia, the ombudsman, the chief prosecutor, etc.
