In general, the analysis of the questioned restrictions on the voting rights in the member states of the Council of Europe shows that the restrictions are most often not in contradiction with the principles of human rights and the practices of citizenship. The voting rights are not absolute citizenship rights and, as such, the restrictions could be justified as far as they are introduced on a non-discriminatory base. The real question is not whether the present restrictions on the voting rights on grounds of minimum age, residence and nationality, mental incapacity, criminal conviction etc. are legal or legitimate, but whether there is a need for enabling persons with these characteristics to participate in the democratic decision-making process. If the normative orientation is to broaden the electoral body, then the limits on imposing such restrictions shall be stricter and closer to universal.