Published on 5 June 2023
FIFTH SECTION
Application no. 18372/15
Aleksey Ivanovich VATS
against Ukraine
lodged on 8 April 2015
communicated on 17 May 2023
STATEMENT OF FACTS
The case concerns the refusal of the Central Election Commission (“the CEC”) to register the applicant as a self-nominated candidate in a single-seat constituency for the parliamentary elections of 26 October 2014 on the grounds that he omitted to indicate in his application form an obligation to terminate activities incompatible with the mandate of a Member of Parliament in case of being elected.
The applicant unsuccessfully argued, both before the CEC and subsequently before the administrative courts, that the omission in question had been of a purely technical nature and that he should have been provided with the possibility of rectifying it. He relied on Article 60 § 3 of the Parliamentary Elections Act, which provided that errors and inaccuracies in applications for candidacy registration and accompanying documents were subject to rectification and did not provide grounds for a candidacy refusal.
The applicant complains of a breach of his passive electoral right under Article 3 of Protocol No. 1.
QUESTION TO THE PARTIES
Has there been a breach of the applicant’s right under Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 to stand as a candidate in free elections which ensure the free expression of the opinion of the people in the choice of the legislature?