ŽDANOKA v. LATVIA JUDGMENT 23 whether the applicant’s conduct more than a decade previously still constituted sufficient justification for barring her from standing in parliamentary elections. It noted in this connection that although the applicant had occupied an important position within the CPL structure, there was no evidence that her actual conduct at the material time in 1991 justified the continuing restriction. The Chamber also considered it noteworthy that the applicant was never prosecuted for an offence, that the CPL had not been dissolved until after the events of August 1991 and that there was no proof that the applicant’s current conduct justified the continuing restriction. It further criticised the Latvian legislature for adopting the impugned restriction only in 1995, and not before the elections held in 1993. This showed that former leading figures at the CPL were not considered to pose a danger to democracy. In sum, and having regard in particular to the case-law principles derived from Article 11 of the Convention to support its reasoning and conclusion, the Chamber considered that the applicant’s disqualification from standing as a parliamentary candidate was disproportionate and therefore in violation of Article 3 of Protocol No. 1. B. The parties’ submissions 1. The applicant 76. The applicant requested that the Chamber’s judgment be upheld. She considered that the reasons given for her disqualification should be examined in the light of the principles and conclusions identified by the Court in United Communist Party of Turkey and Others v. Turkey (30 January 1998, §§ 45-46, Reports 1998-I). The applicant contested the allegations regarding the CPL’s allegedly totalitarian and dangerous nature with reference to the party’s official programme adopted in April 1990, which advocated “constructive cooperation between different political forces favourable to the democratic transformation of society” and “a society based on the principles of democracy [and] humanism”. Moreover, at the time of the CPL’s 25th Congress, the party had had no intention of restoring the former totalitarian communist regime. She further pointed out that the CPL was declared unconstitutional only on 23 August 1991 and that the party’s activities had remained perfectly legal until that date, including in the period after the events of January 1991. 77. The applicant further argued that the very facts of her membership in the CPL and her position in the structure of the party did not suffice to prove a lack of loyalty towards Latvia. Indeed, of the 201 members of the Supreme Council, 106 had originally been members of the CPL and the division of members of parliament into two main camps had been based solely on their attitude to the Declaration of Independence, and not on