Yumak and Sadak v. Turkey, No. 10226/2003, ECtHR (Grand Chamber), 8 July 2008

Legislation imposing a high electoral threshold in national elections for the representation of political parties in Parliament.

Art. 3 Prot. No. 1 ECHR

1. Expression of the opinion of the people is inconceivable without the assistance of a plurality of political parties representing the various currents of opinion flowing through a country’s population.

2. Regional parties should be permitted to exist and stand for election, at least at the regional level.

3. Article 3 of Protocol No.1 does not in principle impose the obligation to adopt an electoral system guaranteeing parliamentary representation to political parties with an essentially regional base irrespective of the votes cast in other parts of the country. However, a problem might arise under the Convention if the domestic electoral legislation tended to deprive such parties of parliamentary representation.

(In the present case, the Grand Chamber held that the imposition of an electoral threshold of 10% in parliamentary elections in Turkey had not overstepped the Contracting States’ wide margin of appreciation with regard to Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 ECHR).