14 KERIMOVA v. AZERBAIJAN JUDGMENT 52. Lastly, the Court notes that, despite the fact that the applicant repeatedly raised all of the above points in her appeals to the domestic courts, the courts failed to adequately address these issues and simply reiterated the CEC's findings. They refused to examine any primary evidence, which primarily consisted of the illegally altered originals of the PEC protocols, and failed to review the compliance of the CEC's decision with the requirements of the electoral law. As such, the manner of examination of the applicant's election-related appeals was ineffective. 53. The authorities' inadequate approach to this matter brought about a situation where the whole election process in the entire electoral constituency was essentially single-handedly sabotaged by two low-ranking electoral officials, who had abused their position to make some changes to a number of election protocols that were in their possession. By arbitrarily invalidating the election results because of these officials' actions, the domestic authorities essentially aided and abetted them in thwarting the election. Such lack of concern for integrity of the electoral process from within the electoral administration cannot be considered compatible with the spirit of Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention. 54. In view of the above, the Court concludes that, while the perpetrators of the irregularities, which ostensibly “necessitated” the authorities' decision to invalidate the election results, did not appear to succeed in their aim of affecting the ultimate outcome of the elections, the invalidation decision itself “succeeded” in doing so. The annulment of the elections in the applicant's constituency lacked any relevant reasons and was in apparent breach of the procedure established by the domestic electoral law (see paragraph 51 above). This decision arbitrarily infringed the applicant's electoral rights by depriving her of the benefit of being elected to Parliament, and as such ran counter to the concern to maintain the integrity and effectiveness of an electoral procedure aimed at identifying the will of the people through universal suffrage. 55. There has accordingly been a violation of Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention. II. ALLEGED VIOLATION OF ARTICLE 14 OF THE CONVENTION 56. In conjunction with the above complaint, the applicant complained that despite clearly winning the election she was arbitrarily deprived of her seat in Parliament owing to her political affiliation with an opposition party. She relied on Article 14, which provides as follows: “The enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in [the] Convention shall be secured without discrimination on any ground such as sex, race, colour, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth or other status.”