Home > 1.1.3 Submission of candidatures > TÜRKIYE - Joint Opinion on Amendments to the Electoral Legislation and Related "Harmonisation Laws" Adopted in March and April 2018
 
 
 
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Paragraph 51
 

As part of the March amendments, candidates in the lists of political parties may not be nominated from among the members of other political parties without written consent of the political party the candidate belongs to (Article 16.3 of the Law on Parliamentary Elections). This restriction should be reconsidered. The decision to stand for election is in this context an individual right, though it may be subject to restrictions, not a party right.40 The political party should not decide on the right of its members to stand for parliamentary elections. Although the members of the political parties are free to step out of the party, this requirement does not serve any wider public interest. The membership in political parties should not lead to such restriction in the right to stand for election. Rather it should be up to the political party to decide on the membership once its member has been nominated as a candidate in another political party’s candidate list.


 


40 See Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters, I.1.1. While not identical to the present case, it should be noted that the ECtHR has been negative to political parties deciding on the mandates of elected representatives, see Paunovic and Milivojevic v. Serbia, 24 August 2016, No. 41683/06, par. 63-65.