2
THE GEORGIAN LABOUR PARTY v. GEORGIA JUDGMENT
In the case of the Georgian Labour Party v. Georgia,
The European Court of Human Rights (Second Section), sitting as a
Chamber composed of:
Françoise Tulkens, President,
Ireneu Cabral-Barreto,
Riza Türmen,
Mindia Ugrekhelidze,
Vladimiro Zagrebelsky,
Antonella Mularoni,
Dragoljub Popović, judges,
and Sally Dollé, Section Registrar,
Having deliberated in private on 4 September 2007 and on 17 June 2008,
Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on the lastmentioned date:
PROCEDURE
1. The case originated in an application (no. 9103/04) against Georgia
lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection
of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) by the
Georgian Labour Party (“the applicant party”) on 16 December 2003.
2. The applicant party was represented before the Court by
Mr Sh. Natelashvili, its Chairman. The applicant party’s first legal
representative, Ms L. Mukhashavria, was replaced on 20 February 2007 by
Mr G. Mamporia, Ms K. Utiashvili and Ms M. Tsutskiridze, lawyers
practising in Georgia. On 24 June 2007 the applicant party appointed
Ms J. Rinceanu, a lawyer practising in Germany, for the purposes of oral
proceedings before the Court.
3. The Georgian Government (“the Government”) were successively
represented by their Agents Mr B. Bokhashvili and Mr D. Tomadze of the
Ministry of Justice.
4. The applicant party alleged, in particular, violations of its rights under
Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 and Article 14 of the Convention during the
repeat parliamentary election of 28 March 2004 as a result of domestic
electoral mechanisms and the de facto disfranchisement of around 60,000
voters in two electoral districts.
5. On 18 September 2006 the Government filed their observations on the
admissibility and merits of the application. The applicant party did not
produce any observations in reply.
6. In a final decision of 22 May 2007, the Court declared the application
partly admissible.