2 MÓŁKA v. POLAND DECISION THE FACTS The applicant, Mr Antoni Mółka, is a Polish national who was born in 1957 and lives in Nowy Sącz. He was represented before the Court by Mr P. Sendecki, a lawyer practising in Lublin. The respondent Government were represented by their Agent, Mr J. Wołąsiewicz, of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A. The circumstances of the case The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as follows. The applicant suffers from severe dysfunction of the limbs and is confined to a wheelchair. On 11 October 1998 the applicant was driven by his mother to a polling station in Nowy Sącz where he intended to vote in the elections to municipal and district councils and provincial assemblies (wybory do rad gmin, rad powiatów i sejmików województw). The applicant’s mother asked the Chairman of the Local Electoral Commission to either show her how the applicant, who was waiting in his wheelchair outside the station, could enter it or hand a ballot paper to him. The chairman informed the applicant’s mother that the applicant could not cast his vote because it was not permitted to take ballot papers outside the premises of the polling station and the chairman was not going to carry the applicant inside the station. The applicant returned home without casting his vote. At 5 p.m. on the same day, i.e. three hours before the polling stations closed, the applicant telephoned the Municipal Electoral Commission (Miejska Komisja Wyborcza) and protested about the refusal to allow him to vote. He also asked for help in casting his vote. However, the applicant was informed that the Local Electoral Commission acted in conformity with the Law of 16 July 1998 on Elections to Municipal Councils, District Councils and Regional Assemblies (Ordynacja wyborcza do rad gmin, rad powiatów i sejmików województw) (“the Local Elections Act”) and advised to arrange for assistance in entering the premises of the polling station. On 14 November 1998 the applicant lodged an electoral complaint (protest wyborczy) with the Nowy Sącz Regional Court (Sąd Wojewódzki). He submitted that he had been unlawfully deprived of his right to vote. The applicant pointed out that getting to the polling station had required substantial effort on his part, the assistance of other persons and certain expenses. He ended his submissions with the following statement: “I would like to stress that the only way I could have been carried in was on a stretcher (which was not available) and anyway no handicapped person would have agreed to that because of the feeling of embarrassment. Carrying me upstairs in a