6 ATAKISHI v. AZERBAIJAN JUDGMENT examined only under Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention, which reads as follows: “The High Contracting Parties undertake to hold free elections at reasonable intervals by secret ballot, under conditions which will ensure the free expression of the opinion of the people in the choice of the legislature.” A. Admissibility 30. The Court notes that this complaint is not manifestly ill-founded within the meaning of Article 35 § 3 (a) of the Convention. It further notes that it is not inadmissible on any other grounds. It must therefore be declared admissible. B. Merits 1. The parties’ submissions 31. The Government submitted that the aim of Article 88 of the Electoral Code, which served as the basis for his disqualification, was to ensure equal and fair campaign conditions for all candidates. Disqualification of candidates who engaged in various forms of illegal vote-buying and other illegal campaigning methods had the legitimate aim of protecting the free expression of the opinion of the people in elections and ensuring that the elections were held in accordance with democratic standards. 32. The Government maintained that the applicant had been disqualified because he had attempted to bribe voters and had otherwise conducted his campaign in an unlawful manner. According to the Government, these facts had been sufficiently proved by the written statements made by a number of voters and by another candidate. They maintained that the ConEC had held a meeting on 29 October 2005 in accordance with the procedural requirements and taken a substantiated decision to request the applicant’s disqualification. Furthermore, the applicant had been afforded an opportunity to fully and effectively defend his position in the relevant proceedings before the domestic courts, which had taken their decisions “in full compliance with the Electoral Code”. 33. The applicant submitted that there existed no proven factual or legal grounds for his disqualification. He claimed that his arbitrary disqualification was just one of various unlawful acts by various officials who had abused their authority in order to interfere with the electoral process with the aim of creating “favoured conditions” in order to ensure the election of M.I., the candidate supported by the Government.