hetq.am: Yesterday, on June 25, the Administrative Court annulled the decision of the Central Electoral Commission, which issued a warning to Nikol Pashinyan, the PM candidate of the "Civil Contract" party, based on the application of the "I Have the Honor" alliance. On the eve of the election, which is considered a "day of silence", Nikol Pashinyan went live and made a speech on his Facebook page, which the CEC considered a violation of the campaign ban, and issued a warning.

The authorized representative of the "Civil Contract" party Tigran Naghdalyan had filed a lawsuit in the administrative court against the CEC, asking to invalidate (eliminate) the commission's decision No. 160-A. of 19.06.2021. The "I Have Honor" alliance was involved in the lawsuit as a third party, but neither the response to the lawsuit was filed, nor did they show up to court.

The representative of the ruling party noted that the CEC did not fulfill the requirement to substantiate the administrative act in terms of content. The commission simply stated that it records the violation, without giving any reasons or justifications. Naghdalyan noted that according to the disputed decision, the CEC did not refer to the substantiations presented by the "Civil Contract" party within the framework of the proceedings, did not give reasons on the basis of which the arguments are refuted.

The representative also said that the acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan addressed two main topics in his public speech on his Facebook page. The first was on election-related issues of the judiciary and law enforcement system, and the second on voting procedures. The video did not use any images or words that could be associated with this or that party. In this case, Nikol Pashinyan did not act as a candidate, but as the acting Prime Minister. The representative of the party confirmed this by the fact that as of 19.06.2021, the acting Prime Minister has not been on vacation, and has acted as the head of the government.

Georgy Martirosyan, a representative of the Central Electoral Commission, said during the trial that the fact that the acting Prime Minister had returned from vacation could not matter. He is the first person of the party, one of the main candidates for the post of Prime Minister, and his call is directly associated with the "Civil Contract" party. According to the CEC, as for Pashinyan's statement regarding the judiciary, the prosecutor's office, and other law enforcement agencies, it was an advertisement aimed at the work of the acting prime minister's government, and propaganda, so the commission made the disputed decision based on the information mentioned above.

According to the representative of the CEC, the day of silence refers to people with public recognition and perception, who have a direct influence on the will of the voters, and in practice, there has not been a case of silence on the part of any candidate, and any kind of speech violates this rule. In this case, Nikol Pashinyan's public speech is enough to be considered a violation of the day of silence, but the term "propaganda" is not revealed by the RA legislation. Any action by the candidates can be propaganda or anti-propaganda.