MOSCOW, November 8 (RAPSI) – The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) held on Tuesday that the rights of a regional division of the Yabloko party and several of its members had been violated as regarded the cancelation of the registration of the party’s lists for elections in the Republic of Karelia in 2006.

A regional Yabloko party conference was held in August 2006 to nominate candidates for the upcoming Karelian Legislative Assembly elections. At the end of the month, the regional Directorate of the Federal Registration Service of the Ministry of Justice wrote to the Republic’s Electoral Commission informing it that the conference had been held in breach of the applicable legislation. The Electoral Commission in turn applied to the Karelia Supreme Court to annul its decision to register the nominated Yabloko candidates. The Court granted this application, which was later upheld by Russia’s Supreme Court.

Applications to the ECHR were also submitted by Irina Petelyayeva, in 2006 the chairwoman of the applicant party, Alesandr Klimchuk and Kseniya Fillipenkova, members of the party. The applicants alleged that the decision to cancel the registration of the Yabloko candidates had been in breach of Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights (right to free elections).