THE GEORGIAN LABOUR PARTY v. GEORGIA JUDGMENT 5 dismissed the claim, reasoning that the applicant party lacked victim status. That judgment was quashed on 26 December 2003 by the Supreme Court which noted that, since the applicant party was running for election, there was a direct and consequential link between its interests and the decisions of the CEC. However, the Supreme Court dismissed the claim as manifestly ill-founded. 19. On 7, 9 and 12 December 2003 the CEC issued Ordinances by which voters were required to attend electoral precincts and fill out special forms; this would enable them to cast their ballots during the presidential election of 4 January 2004. 20. Along with other opposition parties, the applicant party challenged the lawfulness of those rules in court. On 15 December 2003 the Tbilisi Regional Court dismissed the claim as unsubstantiated. With regard to the applicant party, the court stated that it lacked victim status as it had failed to show what direct and specific harm the preliminary voter registration procedure for the presidential election could possibly have caused to its interests. 21. On 15 January 2004 Mr M. Saakashvili was declared President of Georgia. By an Ordinance of 31 January 2004, the new President appointed five members of the CEC, one of whom was given authority to appoint five members in the District Electoral Commissions (“the DECs”) under Article 128(1) § 4 of the EC. 22. Nineteen political parties and blocs were registered by the CEC on 21 February 2004 as candidates for the repeat parliamentary election, including the applicant party and the ruling coalition of the President’s National Movement and Ms Burjanadze’s United Democrats. The presidential National Movement had previously won the 2002 municipal elections in Tbilisi. 23. For the purposes of the repeat election, the CEC passed another decree on 27 February 2004 (Decree no. 30/2004), pursuant to which the Precinct Electoral Commissions (“the PECs”) had to post preliminary lists of voters in their bureaux, data which had been gathered in the course of the preliminary registration of voters for the presidential election. Between 8 and 21 March 2004, voters were to attend the electoral precincts again to verify that their names were on the lists. If a voter found that he or she was missing from the list, a petition for correction was to be filed with the relevant PEC. On 21 March 2004 the PECs were to send corrected versions of the preliminary electoral rolls to the relevant DEC, which was required to produce final electoral rolls and remit them to the PECs for a further public examination. Between 23 and 27 March 2004, voters were to recheck the final lists and request corrections if necessary. The Decree also envisaged adding the names of voters who had not been included in the preliminary registration to the lists on election day itself.