Vladimir Vardanyan has been elected president of Armenia’s Constitutional Court after four voting attempts, while Edgar Shatiryan has announced his resignation as deputy president.
Vardanyan and Shatiryan were nominated for the presidency at a court session. Neither secured the required number of votes in the initial secret ballot, but Vardanyan was elected in a second round, the court said.
Following the election, Shatiryan announced that he no longer considered it appropriate to serve as deputy president, although he would remain a Constitutional Court judge, Pastinfo reports.
Shatiryan said the outcome had not been unexpected and questioned whether it reflected the intended purpose of constitutional amendments adopted in June 2020.
“Personally, I do not want to believe that, but the existing realities force us to acknowledge them. In other words, about six and a half years later, we have come full circle,” he said.
Asked about possible pressure from the authorities, Shatiryan denied experiencing any during his more than six years as a judge.
Vardanyan holds a Candidate of Legal Sciences degree and previously headed the Constitutional Court’s staff from April 2018 to January 2019. A former member of the ruling Civil Contract party, he also served as a member of parliament.
He was elected a Constitutional Court judge on March 25, 2026.
Two earlier rounds of voting on October 14 had failed to produce a winner. The election followed the expiration of former court president Arman Dilanyan’s term on October 12. Dilanyan remains a Constitutional Court judge.
