NAMAT ALIYEV v. AZERBAIJAN JUDGMENT 19 complete information on the complaint. Notwithstanding the large number of complaints, the CEC met infrequently and completed its final protocol without considering all pending complaints. ... ... B. Adjudication of Appeals by the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court The adjudication of post-election disputes in the courts largely disregarded the legal framework, and fell short of internationally accepted norms. In total, the Court of Appeal received 71 appeals and complaints in the post-election period. The Supreme Court received nine appeals during the post-election period until 23 November. The OSCE/ODIHR EOM observed eight hearings in the Court of Appeal and seven hearings in the Supreme Court. In most cases, complaints and appeals were either dismissed without consideration of the merits or rejected as groundless by both the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. ...” THE LAW I. ALLEGED VIOLATION OF ARTICLE 3 OF PROTOCOL No. 1 TO THE CONVENTION 56. Relying on Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention and Article 13 of the Convention, the applicant complained that, in the electoral constituency where he stood as a candidate in the parliamentary elections, there had been a number of serious irregularities and breaches of electoral law which had made it impossible to determine the true opinion of voters and thus had infringed his right to stand as a candidate in free elections. The domestic authorities, including the electoral commissions and courts, had failed to duly examine his complaints and to investigate his allegations concerning the mentioned irregularities and breaches of electoral law. He also argued that one of the reasons for this failure was the method of composition of electoral commissions at all levels, which allegedly placed the majority of votes within each commission under the control of the ruling political forces and made the commissions prone to take politically-motivated decisions disadvantaging opposition candidates. 57. Having regard to the special features of the present case, the Court considers that this complaint falls to be examined only under Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention and that no separate examination is necessary under Article 13. Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 reads as follows: “The High Contracting Parties undertake to hold free elections at reasonable intervals by secret ballot, under conditions which will ensure the free expression of the opinion of the people in the choice of the legislature.”