THE GEORGIAN LABOUR PARTY v. GEORGIA JUDGMENT
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guaranteeing the electoral bodies’ independence and impartiality (see
paragraphs 68-69 above). Ultimately, the raison d’être of an electoral
commission is to ensure the effective administration of free and fair polls in
an impartial manner, which, in the Court’s opinion, would be impossible to
achieve if that commission becomes another forum for political struggle
between election candidates.
109. The Court notes, however, that the applicant party did not submit
any evidence that the presidential majority in the electoral commissions had
misappropriated the votes cast in its favour or otherwise limited its rights
and legitimate interests during the repeat parliamentary election. The
applicant party’s reference to the 28 March 2004 EOM Report is, in the
Court’s view, insufficient. Admittedly, this Report criticised the lack of
political balance in the electoral commissions and noted some instances of
the improper functioning thereof (see paragraph 50 above). However,
nowhere did it specifically state that the applicant party’s rights and
interests were directly limited by the acts or omissions of the electoral
commissions. The Court cannot find a violation of Article 3 of Protocol
No. 1 solely on the basis of the allegation, no matter how plausible it is, that
the system created possibilities for electoral fraud; instead, the applicant
party should have submitted evidence of specific incidents of alleged
violations.
110. With due regard to the above, the Court concludes that the
contested composition of electoral commissions at all levels indeed lacked
sufficient checks and balances against the President’s power and that those
commissions could hardly enjoy independence from the outside political
pressure. However, in the absence of any proof of particular acts of abuse of
power or electoral fraud committed within the electoral commissions to the
applicant party’s detriment, no breach of the latter’s right to stand for
election can be established.
111. There has accordingly been no violation of Article 3 of Protocol
No. 1.
D. Exclusion of the Khulo and Kobuleti electoral districts from the
countrywide vote tally
1. The Government’s submissions
112. The Government submitted that, in the Khulo and Kobuleti
electoral districts, the Ajarian authorities had falsified the results of the
repeat parliamentary election of 28 March 2004. Consequently, on 2 April
2004 the CEC annulled the election results in those districts, discontinued
the authority of the corresponding electoral commissions and commissioned
a different group of electoral administrators for the purposes of holding new
polls on 18 April 2004. However, the Ajarian authorities did not allow that