Elections

The applicant was a British national who had moved to Italy in 1982. Under the Representation of the People Act 1983, British citizens residing overseas for less than 15 years were permitted to vote in parliamentary elections in the UK. The applicant did not meet that criterion. He complained to the European Court of Human Rights that his right to Art 3 of the First Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights had been violated. In dismissing the application, the court held that the rights bestowed by Art 3 of the First Protocol to the Convention were not absolute. There was room for implied limitations and contracting states had to be allowed a margin of appreciation in that sphere. For a measure to be deemed compatible with the right to vote, the conditions to which the right to vote was made subject could not curtail the right to such an extent as to impair its very essence and deprive it of