Home > 2.4 Complaints and appeals > REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA - Joint Follow-up Opinion to the Joint Opinion on Amendments to the Electoral Code and other Related Laws Concerning Ineligibility of Persons Connected to Political Parties Declared Unconstitutional
 
 
 
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Paragraph 43
 

The European Court of Human Rights has stressed the need to afford sufficient procedural safeguards against arbitrariness in the framework of the process of the domestic authorities making such individual assessments. There is a risk that, based on the declaration of unconstitutionality of a political party, the ineligibility to stand for elections is confirmed without sufficient evidence that the persons concerned actively contributed to the illegitimate acts attributed to the political party that led to the declaration of unconstitutionality. The mere fact that the person’s behaviour was referred as one of the arguments by the Constitutional Court should not be enough. As provided by international obligations and OSCE commitments, strong procedural guarantees are necessary, to ensure everyone’s right to “effective means of redress against administrative decisions so as to guarantee respect for fundamental rights and ensure legal integrity”, including “the possibility for judicial review of such […] decisions”. This applies to the decision of the Central Electoral Commission to include an individual in the list of Article 16(f), implying ineligibility to be elected.