The issue of renouncing mandates has a political character; the CEC, based on preliminary data, will carry out the distribution of mandates. This was stated by CEC Chairman Tigran Muguchyan on 21 June during a conversation with journalists, addressing the question of what will happen if the “Armenia” alliance and “I Have Honor” renounce their mandates.
“Mandates are distributed exclusively among those parties that, in the manner prescribed by law, must receive those mandates; in their place, those mandates cannot be transferred to another force,” he said.
To the question of whether all opposition deputies were to renounce, Muguchyan responded that it would mean no one receives a mandate; to the observation that in that case there would be no opposition in parliament, Muguchyan replied: “The forces that are there remain in parliament.”
To the question of whether this leads to new early elections, Muguchyan said that at this moment he finds it difficult to give a clear answer.
“At this stage we do not have a codified institution of renouncing mandates; of course, there could be an option whereby, let us suppose, the candidates to whom mandates are allocated renounce receiving their mandates by way of self-withdrawal; in that case, the parties that participated in the distribution of mandates, naturally, are the only ones that receive their mandates.”
