Pecu liarities of applying the practice of the ECHR in the consideration of election disputes in Ukraine

Abstract

The article is devoted to the peculiarities of the application of the practice of the ECHR in the consideration of election disputes by national courts. It was noted that consideration and resolution of election disputes by the ECHR is a common way for the applicant to protect his electoral rights, but only on the condition that national remedies have been exhausted. It was found that one of the main norms used by the ECHR in cases of violation of election rights is Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which guarantees the right to free elections, but when resolving election disputes, the court does not is limited only to it, and relies on the standards provided by Articles 6, 10, 14 of the Convention. The study of individual decisions of the ECHR, in particular against Ukraine, made it possible to conclude that the ECHR applies the following key principles and standards for consideration of election disputes: equality in electoral processes, transparency and unambiguity, justice of the judiciary, protection of fundamental human rights. It has been established that the peculiarity of the position of the ECHR regarding the consideration of election disputes is that: firstly, Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention protects electoral rights only when forming a body of legislative power, secondly, the right to free elections is not absolute and each state can set certain limits, thirdly, decisions of national courts on election disputes must be based on sufficient evidence and meet the standards of justice. It was found out that the latest decisions of the ECHR based on the results of consideration of applicants' complaints regarding Ukraine's violation of Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention relate to violations of vote counting, invalidation of election results in the electoral district, cancellation of candidate registration for repeat parliamentary elections in individual districts. It was concluded that such decisions confirm the need to study and take into account the practice of the ECHR regarding the consideration of election disputes in order to improve the constitutional and legal norms on elections, the norms of the legislation of Ukraine, which regulate the judicial procedure for considering complaints of subjects of the election process. However, it was emphasized that the ECHR election dispute review procedure has shortcomings, which indicates the need for its improvement in the future.