6.  The applicant was born in 1952 and lives in Bucharest. 7.  As a member of the Association of Italians of Romania, he stood as a candidate in the parliamentary elections of 26 November 2000 for the Italian Community of Romania, one of the organisations representing the Italian minority in Romania. That organisation submitted a single-candidate list containing the applicant’s name in nineteen of the forty-two constituencies. 8.  Once the votes had been counted, the Central Electoral Office decided, on the basis of Article 4 of Law no. 68/1992 on elections to the Chamber of Deputies and to the Senate (“Law no. 68/1992”), to allocate the parliamentary seat belonging to the Italian minority to the Italian Community of Romania, which had secured 21,263 votes at national level. 9.  Although at national level the applicant had secured 5,624 votes out of a total of 21,263, the Central Electoral Office allocated the parliamentary seat to another member of the Italian Community of Romania, Ms Ileana Stana Ionescu, who had stood for election on another single-candidate list and had secured only 2,943 votes, but in a single constituency. 10.  On 1 December 2000 the applicant challenged the decision allocating the parliamentary seat before the Central Electoral Office. On 2 December 2000 the Office dismissed his challenge by a majority. That decision was signed by six judges and six representatives of political parties. 11.  The relevant parts of that decision read:
“In accordance with Article 4 § 2 of Law no. 68/1992, as amended and supplemented, organisations of citizens belonging to national minorities participating in elections are accorded the same legal status as political parties for the purposes of the electoral process.
With regard to the Italian minority, the votes were centralised and the parliamentary seats were allocated, in accordance with Article 66 of the Law, to the organisation having secured the greatest number of votes and on the basis of the order of candidates appearing on that organisation’s winning list, there being no provision in law for individual nomination.
It should be specified that the government’s Emergency Ordinance no. 165 of 15 [sic] October 2000 granting national minorities the right to submit the same list of candidates for the Chamber of Deputies in more than one constituency does not infringe the principle of parliamentary seats being allocated by constituency, the basis of that regulation being to determine, in such instances, the ethnic minority organisation having the largest number of votes, and not to breach the principle of territorial representation in elections.” 12.  In a dissenting opinion, a representative of a political party submitted that Article 68 § 1 (g) of Law no. 68/1992 should be interpreted to mean that in the case of a given ethnic minority, the parliamentary seat should be allocated to the first candidate on the organisation’s national list having gained the most votes, again at national level. 13.  On 2 December 2000 the applicant lodged an appeal with the Central Electoral Office against its decision of the same date. On 3 December 2000 the Office, sitting as a panel composed of six judges and twelve representatives of political parties, declared the appeal inadmissible on the ground that its decisions were final. 14.  On 4 December 2000 the applicant submitted his case to the Constitutional Court. By a letter of 11 December 2000, in which reference was made to Article 21 of the Romanian Constitution guaranteeing free access to the courts, the court informed the applicant that it did not have jurisdiction in matters concerning electoral disputes. 15.  On 4 December 2000 the applicant lodged an appeal with the Supreme Court of Justice. By a decision of 13 December 2000, that court declared the appeal inadmissible on the ground that the decisions of the Central Electoral Office were final. 16.  On 8 December 2000 the applicant repeated his challenge in a submission to the Chamber of Deputies Validation Commission, but was unsuccessful. The transcript of the Chamber of Deputies’ session of 15 December 2000, published on the website of that institution, shows that the applicant’s challenge was rejected on the same ground as that put forward by the Central Electoral Office. 17.  In the parliamentary elections of 2004 and 2008 the applicant was elected MP for the Italian minority in Romania.