8 ANNAGI HAJIBEYLI v. AZERBAIJAN JUDGMENT of in connection with the 2010 elections (contrast Gambar and Others v. Azerbaijan (dec.), nos. 4741/06, 19552/06, 22457/06, 22654/06, 24506/06, 36105/06, and 40318/06, 9 December 2010). 39. Having studied the terms of the Government’s unilateral declaration, the Court considers that the proposed declaration does not provide a sufficient basis for concluding that respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and its Protocols do not require it to continue its examination of this particular case. 40. Therefore, the Court refuses the Government’s request for it to strike the application out of its list of cases under Article 37 of the Convention, and will accordingly pursue its examination of the admissibility and merits of the case. II. ALLEGED VIOLATION OF ARTICLE 3 OF PROTOCOL No. 1 TO THE CONVENTION 41. The applicant complained under Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention and Article 13 of the Convention that his right to stand as a candidate in free elections had been violated because his request for registration as a candidate had been refused arbitrarily. The Court considers that this complaint falls to be examined only under Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention and that no separate examination is necessary under Article 13 (compare Namat Aliyev v. Azerbaijan, no. 18705/06, § 57, 8 April 2010). Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention 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 42. 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 43. The Government submitted that the Contracting States enjoyed a wide margin of appreciation under Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 in establishing conditions for exercising the right to stand for election. The requirement to collect at least 450 signatures in support of a candidate had a