GORZELIK AND OTHERS v. POLAND JUDGMENT 23 registered national minority organisations, and may, in case of doubt, require documentary evidence of such authorisation.” It further explained that: “It must be stressed at the outset that the basis for section 5(1) of the 1993 Elections Act is to give Polish citizens belonging to national minorities an equal opportunity to participate in representative bodies. However, the possibility provided by this provision for electoral committees of registered national minority organisations to take advantage of exemptions from electoral thresholds is an exception to the principle of equality of electoral rights in a material sense. In practice, the electoral committee that has submitted a given national minority list [of candidates] will participate [in the distribution of seats in Parliament] ..., despite the fact that its list has not attained the corresponding threshold. This solution reflects a certain understanding of the equality principle that involves entities participating in elections being given equal opportunities ... This amounts to discrimination in favour of electoral committees of registered national minority organisations in comparison with other electoral committees. Since they constitute an exception to the equality principle, provisions governing such discrimination cannot be interpreted extensively. Secondly, section 5(1) reserves the privilege of exemption from electoral thresholds to lists of candidates supplied by the electoral committees of one or more registered national minority organisations, and only committees of that type may submit corresponding declarations to the State Electoral College. The emphasis should be placed on both the reference to 'registered organisations of national minorities' and to electoral committees acting in their name, for this privilege is available to 'national minority' organisations that are organised and act as such. [A] ... condition of the validity, and hence of effectiveness of a declaration seeking to take advantage of the exemption is that it must be submitted by an entity entitled to do so. It is therefore the responsibility of that entity to provide documentary evidence of its entitlement to submit the declaration. In practice, this amounts to a responsibility to submit to the State Electoral College documents unambiguously demonstrating that the electoral committee submitting the declaration is an entity entitled to do so, that is to say, the electoral committee of not just any organisation, but of one or more registered national minority organisations. In accordance with section 5(2), the State Electoral College is required to acknowledge, without delay, receipt of the declaration referred to in subsection (1), in other words, a declaration that has been submitted by an entity entitled to do so. In that connection, the College has a duty to verify whether the declaration was submitted by such an entity, and if in doubt, may require documentation unambiguously confirming the entity's right to submit the declaration, as the declaration gives rise to legal consequences, so justifying the need for specific verification. ... If such documents are not submitted, the State Electoral College is precluded from acknowledging receipt of the declaration referred to in section 5(1), since, apart from the requirement that it be made at the prescribed time to the appropriate electoral college, a vital condition for the validity of the declaration is that it be made by an entitled entity. On the other hand, the State Electoral College does not verify the content of the declaration, for which the electoral committee takes full responsibility. Determining which documents are to be accepted by the State Electoral College as confirmation of the electoral committee's entitlement to submit the declaration referred to in section 5(1) is a separate issue. ... [I]t can be assumed that the State Electoral College may require the presentation of appropriate documents, such as a memorandum of association, that will allow it unambiguously to ascertain that the