NGOs under European Convention on Human Rights / Tymofeyeva

2.12 Right to free elections (Article 3 of Protocol No. 1) Article 3 – Right to free elections

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. 2.12.1 General observations Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 enshrines a fundamental principle for effective political democracy, and is accordingly of prime importance in the Convention system. 1195 The phrase “the free expression of the opinion of the people and the choice of the legislature” signifies that it does not extend to the full range of elections that take place in modern democracies. 1196 The right to free elections under the Convention does not extend, for example, to elections to city council or other local authorities, 1197 elections of a Head of State, 1198 and referendums. 1199 However, the Court has stressed that the word ‘legislature’ in this provision does not necessarily mean the national parliament : elections to the European Parliament 1200 also fall under this Article. In the case of Mathieu-Mohin and Clerfayt v. Belgium , 1201 the Court confirmed that the Flemish council constituted part of the Belgian legislature by virtue of the range of its competence and powers. The right to free elections has two main elements: 1) active (the right to be vote) and 2) passive (the right to stand as a candidate in an election) . The first element gives a right to individuals to vote. 1202 From the other point of view, the Article does not state, in specific terms, that there is a ‘right to vote’. Therefore, in one example, when the Court interpreted Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 as providing a right to vote, members of the UK Parliament believed that the Court had ignored the intention of the Convention’s original drafters. 1203 No matter, whether the right to vote was initially included or not, it is clear that this right is bestowed only on natural persons. Accordingly, Article 34 NGOs do not enjoy active voting rights. Consequently, we will not address this first category in this book, and the following section will 1195 HARRIS, 2009, cited above, p. 711. 1196 O’BOYLE, Michael. Electoral Disputes and the ECHR: An Overview . Strasbourg, 12 November 2008, CDL-UD(2008)010, p. 2. 1197 Cherepkov v. Russia (dec.), no. 51501/99, ECHR 2000-I. 1198 Habsburg-Lothringen v. Austria (dec.), no. 15344/89, 14 December 1989. 1199 Hilbe v. Liechtenstein (dec.), no. 31981/96, ECHR 1999-VI. 1202 Article 3 of the First Protocol: Right to free elections (online). URL: accessed 7 March 2015. 1203 The history of prisoner voting and the European Convention on Human Rights (online). URL: accessed 7 March 2015. 1200 Matthews v. the United Kingdom [GC], no. 24833/94, ECHR 1999-I. 1201 Mathieu-Mohin and Clerfayt v. Belgium , 2 March 1987, Series a no. 113.

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