GROSARU v. ROMANIA JUDGMENT 17 of 28 February 1994, Decisions and Reports 76-A, p. 65, and Babenko v. Ukraine (dec.), no. 43476/98, 4 May 1999. 47. In that connection, the Court reiterates that the object and purpose of the Convention, which is an instrument for the protection of human beings, requires its provisions to be interpreted and applied in such a way as to make their stipulations not theoretical or illusory but practical and effective (see, for example, Artico v. Italy, 13 May 1980, § 33, Series A no. 37; United Communist Party of Turkey and Others v. Turkey, 30 January 1998, § 33, Reports of Judgments and Decisions 1998-I; and Chassagnou and Others v. France [GC], nos. 25088/94, 28331/95 and 28443/95, § 100, ECHR 1999-III). The right to stand as a candidate in an election, which is guaranteed by Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 and is inherent in the concept of a truly democratic regime, would be merely illusory if one could be arbitrarily deprived of it at any moment. Consequently, while it is true that States have a wide margin of appreciation when establishing eligibility conditions in the abstract, the principle that rights must be effective requires the finding that this or that candidate has failed to satisfy them to comply with a number of criteria framed to prevent arbitrary decisions. In particular, such a finding must be reached by a body which can provide a minimum of guarantees of its impartiality. Similarly, the discretion enjoyed by the body concerned must not be exorbitantly wide; it must be circumscribed, with sufficient precision, by the provisions of domestic law. Lastly, the procedure for ruling a candidate ineligible must be such as to guarantee a fair and objective decision and prevent any abuse of power on the part of the relevant authority (see Podkolzina, cited above, § 35). 48. The Court notes at the outset that Romania has chosen to ensure special representation for minorities in Parliament and that this is the European country where the largest number of minority parties or organisations have participated in elections and have representatives in Parliament (see the conclusions of the Report on electoral law and national minorities, paragraph 24 above). 49. The Court observes that Law no. 68/1992 does not set out clearly the procedure to be followed in assigning the parliamentary seat set aside for the winning organisation representing a national minority. Thus, the Central Electoral Office, in accordance with Article 68 § 1 (g) of the Law in question must indicate “the name and surname of the first candidate appearing on the list of the organisation entitled to a seat in the Chamber of Deputies having secured the largest number of votes”. That text does not specify whether this is the largest number of votes at national level or at constituency level. However, such a detail may prove decisive when determining the winning candidate. 50. Within the Italian Community of Romania, for which the applicant had stood as a candidate, the seat was allocated not to the applicant, who had secured the greatest number of votes at national level, but to another