Guide on Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 – Right to free elections C. Residence, condition of access to voting rights 1. Right of citizens residing abroad to vote 33. In a series of cases beginning in 1961, the Commission declared inadmissible, as manifestly illfounded, complaints about restrictions on voting rights based on a residence criterion (see the Commission decisions: X. and Others v. Belgium, 1975; X. v. the United Kingdom, 1976; X. v. the United Kingdom, 1979; X. v. the United Kingdom, 1982; Polacco and Garofalo v. Italy, 1997; Luksch v. Germany, 1997). 34. The Court subsequently reiterated the compatibility with Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 of the residence criterion. Such a restriction can be justified for a number of reasons: ▪ first, the presumption that non-resident citizens are less directly or less continuously concerned by their country’s day-to-day problems and have less knowledge of them; ▪ second, the fact that candidates standing for election to parliament cannot so easily present the election issues to citizens living abroad, who will also have less influence on the selection of candidates or on the drafting of their manifestos; ▪ third, the close connection between the right to vote in parliamentary elections and the fact of being directly affected by the acts of the political bodies thus elected; and, ▪ fourth, the legitimate concern the legislature may have to limit the influence of citizens living abroad in elections concerning issues which, while fundamental, primarily affect those living in the country. 35. Even if the person concerned has not severed all ties with his or her country of origin and some of the above-mentioned factors perhaps do not apply to that person, the law cannot always take account of every individual case but must lay down a general rule (Hilbe v. Liechtenstein (dec.), 1999; Doyle v. the United Kingdom (dec.), 2007; Shindler v. the United Kingdom, 2013, § 105). 36. The Court thus considered ill-founded the applications of nationals who had left their country of origin (Hilbe v. Liechtenstein (dec.), 1999). In two cases it particularly took account of the fact that non-residents could vote in national elections for the first fifteen years following their emigration and that their right was, in any event, restored if and when they returned to live in their country of origin, thus finding that the measure was not disproportionate (Doyle v. the United Kingdom (dec.), 2007; Shindler v. the United Kingdom, 2013, § 108). The Court also found it pertinent that Parliament had sought, more than once, to weigh up the competing interests, and had debated in detail the question of the voting rights of non-residents; the evolution of opinions in Parliament was reflected in the amendments to the cut-off period since some non-resident citizens had first been allowed to vote (ibid., § 117). 37. In Shindler v. the United Kingdom, 2013, the Court noted that there was a growing awareness at European level of the problems posed by migration in terms of political participation in the countries of origin and residence. However, none of the material examined formed a basis for concluding that, as the law currently stood, States were under an obligation to grant non-residents unrestricted access to the franchise. While there was a clear trend, in the law and practice of the member States, to allow non-residents to vote, and a significant majority of States were in favour of an unrestricted right of access, this was not sufficient to establish the existence of any common approach or consensus in favour of unrestricted voting rights for non-residents. The Court thus concluded that, although the matter might need to be kept under review, the margin of appreciation enjoyed by the State in this area remained a wide one (§§ 109-115). 2. Particular case of certain territories 38. In Py v. France, 2005, the Court referred back to the idea of a sufficiently strong tie between the potential voter and the territory concerned. A French national from mainland France and living in European Court of Human Rights 11/35 Last update: 30.04.2021