CEDH · PRESS;HEARINGS;ENG — 4 septembre 2007

.s800EAC49 { font-size:12pt } .sFE10DC93 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center } .s29100277 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold } .s40F41F73 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:right } .s32563E28 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt } .sBB9EE52A { font-family:Arial } .s4DDA3AA3 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold; font-style:italic } .sADADF4A7 { font-family:Arial; text-decoration:underline } .sCB9E0544 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:left } .s69BE285C { margin-top:0pt; margin-left:85.05pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-indent:-85.05pt } .s9A223E1B { width:11.03pt; text-indent:0pt; display:inline-block } .s595A57E4 { width:85.05pt; text-indent:0pt; display:inline-block } .s3CED24E9 { width:27.05pt; text-indent:0pt; display:inline-block } .s9E97F54A { width:85.05pt; display:inline-block } .s7ED160F0 { text-decoration:none } .s653E6C45 { font-family:Arial; font-size:6.67pt; vertical-align:super; color:#0069d6 } .sC7EAD8B { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:underline } .sA36B60A1 { font-family:Arial; font-style:italic } .sF6A12959 { width:33%; height:1px; text-align:left } .s2EB42ED2 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:10pt } EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS   567 4.9.2007   Press release issued by the Registrar   CHAMBER HEARING THE GEORGIAN LABOUR PARTY v. GEORGIA (NO. 2)     The European Court of Human Rights is holding today Tuesday 4 September 2007 at 9   a.m. a Chamber hearing on the merits in the case of The Georgian Labour Party v. Georgia (No. 2) (application no. 9103/04). The hearing will be broadcast from 2.30 p.m. on the Court’s Internet site http://www.echr.coe.int .     The applicant   The Georgian Labour Party is a political party based in Tbilisi.   Summary of the facts   On 2 November 2003 a general parliamentary election was held in Georgia, the outcome to be decided according to two voting systems, majority voting and proportional representation. The Georgian Labour Party received 12.04% of the votes cast under proportional representation, which corresponded to 20 of the 150 seats in Parliament reserved for candidates from party lists.   Demonstrators protesting that the elections had been rigged and calling for the resignation of Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze disrupted the newly-elected Parliament’s first session on 22 November 2003 (the so-called “Rose Revolution”). President Shevardnadze resigned and the Supreme Court of Georgia annulled the proportional representation results of the general election. It was subsequently decided to hold a presidential election on 4   January 2004 and a re-run of the parliamentary election was ultimately scheduled for 28   March 2004.   The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) passed a number of decrees in December 2003 requiring voters to go to electoral precincts and fill out special forms in order to vote in the presidential election. The Georgian Labour Party and other opposition parties challenged the lawfulness of those rules in court, but the claim was dismissed. No-one from the Georgian Labour Party stood as a candidate in the presidential election. The applicant party made an unsuccessful request to the Supreme Court to have the election results annulled.   Concerning the parliamentary election, the CEC passed another decree requiring electoral precincts to publish preliminary lists of voters and obliging voters to go there to check that their names were on the lists and make a request for any correction.   According to the applicant, on the eve of the parliamentary election, the new President of Georgia, Mikhail Saakashvili, told the mass media that he would not allow the Labour Party to be included in the new Parliament.   Following various complaints filed with the CEC about voting irregularities in the general election in the Kobuleti and Khulo electoral districts in the Autonomous Republic of Ajaria, the CEC annulled the results for those two districts. The CEC set 18 April 2004 as the date for a new vote. On the day, however, the polling stations in the Khulo and Kobuleti districts failed to open, which deprived around 60,000 people of their vote.   The same day, the CEC announced the results of the 28 March election; 1,498,012 votes had been cast and the applicant party had received 6.01% of the vote, which was not enough to clear the 7% threshold needed to obtain seats in Parliament.   The applicant’s representative, as one of the 15 members of the CEC, had objected to the finalisation of the election results, arguing that the CEC could not lawfully end a national election without first having held an election in the Khulo and Kobuleti districts. The CEC chairperson had replied that the fact that the polling stations had not opened in those districts was the fault of the local authorities. The CEC accepted the election results by a majority vote.   The applicant party appealed unsuccessfully to the Supreme Court. Constitutional proceedings brought by the chairperson of the applicant party were also unsuccessful.   Complaints   The applicant party complained about the conduct of the parliamentary election on 28   March 2004, relying on Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 (right to free elections) of the European Convention on Human Rights. In particular, it challenged the system of preliminary voter registration and the rules on the composition of electoral rolls. It also complained that a majority of CEC members were representatives of the ruling political forces and that the CEC took decisions by a majority vote enabling it to ignore the Georgian Labour Party’s numerous protests about electoral irregularities. The applicant party further complained that it was deprived of its chance to win parliamentary seats because the general election results were finalised without a vote having been held in two electoral districts.   Procedure   The application was lodged with the European Court of Human Rights on 16 December 2003 and declared partly admissible on 22 May 2007.   Composition of the Court   The case will be heard by a Chamber composed as follows:   Françoise Tulkens (Belgian), President , Ireneu Cabral Barreto (Portuguese), Riza Türmen (Turkish), Mindia Ugrekhelidze (Georgian), Vladimiro Zagrebelsky (Italian), Antonella Mularoni (San Marinese), Dragoljub Popović (Serbian), judges , András Baka (Hungarian), substitute judge , and also Sally Dollé , Section Registrar .   Representatives of the parties   Government :   Konstantin Korkelia , First Deputy Minister of Justice ,   Besarion Bokhashvili , Agent ,   David Tomadze , Counsel ,   Guram Chalagashvili and Archil Anasashvili , Advisers .   Applicant :   Johanna Rinceanu , Counsel,   Mustafa Bekov and Darejan Chadadze-Pollman, Advisers .   Shalva Natelashvili , Chairperson of the Georgian Labour Party, will also attend the hearing.   ***   After the hearing the Court will begin its deliberations, which are held in private. Judgment will be delivered at a later date [1] .   Press contacts Emma Hellyer (telephone: 00 33 (0)3 90 21 42 15) Stéphanie Klein (telephone: 00 33 (0)3 88 41 21 54) Tracey Turner-Tretz (telephone: 00 33 (0)3 88 41 35 30) Paramy Chanthalangsy (telephone: 00 33 (0)3 90 21 54 91)   The European Court of Human Rights was set up in Strasbourg by the Council of Europe Member States in 1959 to deal with alleged violations of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights. [1] This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.