NAMAT ALIYEV v. AZERBAIJAN JUDGMENT 21 B. Merits 1. The parties' submissions 62. The Government submitted that the elections at Barda City Electoral Constituency no. 93 had been conducted in accordance with the requirements of the Electoral Code. The Government argued that the documents submitted by the applicant (mainly observers' affidavits), allegedly proving the irregularities in the constituency, had been in fact compiled only by the applicant's supporters and representatives in various polling stations. In any event, the allegations made by the applicant in reliance on those affidavits contained either “general expressions” or referred to types of alleged infringements which could not seriously affect the election results. They were frequently of speculative nature rather than referring to specific facts. The alleged breaches of electoral law were insignificant and concerned minor local incidents and, thus, did not have a substantial impact on the conduct of the election in the constituency as a whole. The Government argued that, in any event, the difference between the official total numbers of votes received by the winning candidate and the applicant (5,816 votes against 2,001) had been so significant that, even if the applicant could prove that the irregularities alleged by him had indeed taken place, they could not have affected the ultimate result of the election. 63. Further, relying on Babenko v. Ukraine ((dec.), no. 43476/98, 4 May 1999), the Government argued that, taking into account the existence of the domestic authorities' decisions concerning the essence of the applicant's claims, the Court should limit itself to examining only whether those decisions were arbitrary. 64. In this respect, the Government maintained that there were effective remedies available at the domestic level which were capable of providing redress for the kind of election-related matters the applicant complained of. The relevant domestic authorities and courts had duly examined the applicant's complaints and found them unsubstantiated. Contrary to the applicant's claim that the electoral commissions had ignored his complaints, the ConEC actually examined them and even demanded explanations from the relevant PECs. Although the ConEC found that the conditions of some voting areas in some polling stations had indeed been poor, all the applicant's remaining allegations were found to be groundless and untrue. The applicant's subsequent appeals to the domestic courts were not supported by admissible or sufficient evidence and therefore the courts had correctly dismissed his complaints as unsubstantiated. 65. As to the method of composition of electoral commissions, the Government argued that the commissions were composed on a parity basis that did not allow any political force to obtain control over the decision-making process within any commission at any level. They noted