Armenia’s Constitutional Court has rejected a joint appeal from seven opposition groups to challenge the outcome of the June parliamentary elections, leaving the Central Election Commission’s earlier certification of the results, which handed Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party a victory, in place. While some opposition parties appeared to be undaunted by the decision and vowed to continue their efforts to overturn the results, others, including former President Robert Kocharyan’s Armenia Alliance and Russian-Armenian tycoon Samvel Karapetyan’s Strong Armenia, agreed to take up their parliamentary mandates.

The appeal had been filed by the Strong Armenia, Armenia Alliance, Prosperous Armenia, Wings of Unity, Democracy, Law and Discipline, New Force, and For the Republic parties, and asked the court to overturn the official results.

The court’s decision, announced on Saturday, marked a significant setback for the opposition’s effort to contest the results.

Later that day, five parties, including Strong Armenia and the Armenia Alliance — the only opposition parties to cross the vote threshold to join parliament — released a joint declaration saying they would continue to seek the removal of the ‘current regime’, referring to Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party.

The ruling is ‘is not the end of the struggle, but the beginning of a new, more systematic, institutional, and large-scale phase of political resistance’, the statement said.

The opposition groups further argued the court had not ‘resolve[d] the question of the legitimacy of the emerging government’ nor addressed their claims of widespread election irregularities.

In addition to the primary goal of unseating Pashinyan, the opposition groups outlined three other priorities — stopping the government from passing further constitutional changes, defending the Armenian Apostolic Church from government attacks, and releasing what they referred to as political prisoners.

The statement likely referred to Pashinyan’s plan to alter the Armenian Constitution to remove references to Nagorno-Karabakh, which Azerbaijan has said contains territorial claims. Baku has repeatedly stated changing the constitution is a precondition for the finalisation of the ongoing peace process between the two countries.

However, despite the strongly worded statement, both Strong Armenia and the Armenia Alliance agreed to take up their parliamentary mandates.

In a statement explaining the decision on Monday, the Armenia Alliance said it viewed the position of MP as a ‘tool, a legal and political toolkit, and an opportunity for daily resistance’, adding that ‘voluntarily renouncing it would be irresponsible towards our state and our voters’.

Separately, Narek Kareptyan of the Strong Armenia party expressed a similar sentiment on Sunday, saying that ‘for significant change to occur in Armenia, two important things are needed: street struggle and a large representation of the opposition in the [parliament]’.

‘This combination will bring about significant change’, he added.