18
MÓŁKA v. POLAND DECISION
the context of the allocation of limited State resources (see O’Reilly and
Others v. Ireland (dec.), no. 54725/00, 28 February 2002; Sentges, cited
above; and Pentiacova and Others, cited above). In view of their awareness
of the funds available to provide such access for disabled persons, the
national authorities are in a better position to carry out this assessment than
an international court.
Moreover, the Court notes that the applicant has not shown, as was
pointed out by the domestic courts, that he could not have been assisted in
entering the polling station by other persons. The Court also observes that
section 46 of the Local Elections Act expressly provides that a disabled
voter may be assisted in voting by another person, but not by members of
the electoral commission or election monitors.
It is also of relevance for the assessment of the respondent Government’s
compliance with their positive obligations under Article 8 in the present
case that the situation complained of concerned one isolated incident as
opposed to a series of obstacles, architectural or otherwise, preventing
physically disabled applicants from developing their relationships with
other people and the outside world.
Bearing in mind the above considerations, the Court considers that the
respondent State cannot be said, in the special circumstances of the present
case, to have failed to ensure respect for the applicant’s private life.
Furthermore, the Court notes that, pursuant to the Construction Act,
which entered into force on 1 January 1995, public buildings and blocks of
flats constructed after that date must be provided with facilities which are
necessary for their use by people with disabilities, in particular those in
wheelchairs. Since 31 May 2001, the date on which the Law of 12 April
2001 on Elections to the Sejm and the Senate of the Republic of Poland
entered into force, the domestic law has also obliged the relevant authorities
to provide adequate access for disabled voters to polling stations during
parliamentary elections. Those legislative provisions would indicate that the
respondent State has not been oblivious to the plight of disabled voters. The
development represented by the Law of 12 April 2001 may also be relevant
for the present case in as much as the same polling stations are usually used
both for national and local elections.
It follows that the complaint under Article 8 of the Convention is
manifestly ill-founded and must be rejected in accordance with Article 35
§§ 3 and 4 of the Convention.
D. Alleged violation of Article 14 of the Convention taken in
conjunction with Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention
The applicant also alleged a breach of Article 14 of the Convention read
in conjunction with Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention. The
former provision provides:
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