8.  The applicant, a Latvian national born in 1964 and living in Daugavpils (Latvia), is a member of the Russian-speaking minority in Latvia. 9.  By a decision of 30 July 1998 the Central Electoral Commission (Centrālā vēlēšanu komisija) registered the list of the candidates of the National Harmony Party (Tautas saskaņas partija) in the elections to the Latvian parliament (Saeima) of 3 October 1998. The applicant's name appeared on the list as the candidate for the constituency of Latgale. 
At the time of the registration of its list of candidates the National Harmony Party supplied the Central Electoral Commission with all the documents required by the Parliamentary Elections Act, including a copy of the certificate attesting to the fact that the applicant knew the State's official language – Latvian – issued on 23 January 1997 by the Standing Committee for the Certification of Linguistic Competence in the town of Daugavpils, a body responsible to the State Language Centre (Valsts valodas centrs), an administrative institution which was itself answerable to the Ministry of Justice. 10.  On 6 August 1998 an examiner employed by the State Language Inspectorate (Valsts valodas inspekcija), part of the State Language Centre, went to the applicant's place of work and examined her orally to assess her knowledge of Latvian. As the applicant had not been notified of the visit, the examiner approached her while she was conducting negotiations with her business associates.
Having informed the applicant of her intention to verify the level of her competence in Latvian, the examiner struck up a conversation with her in that language. During the conversation, which lasted over half an hour, the examiner asked the applicant, among other questions, why she supported the National Harmony Party rather than some other party.
The examiner returned next day accompanied by three persons whom the applicant did not know, who were to act as invigilators. The examiner asked the applicant to write an essay in Latvian. The applicant agreed to do so and began to write. However, being extremely nervous, because she had not expected such an examination and because of the constant presence of the invigilators, the applicant stopped writing and tore up her work. 11.  The examiner then drew up a report to the effect that the applicant did not have an adequate command of the official language at the “third level”, the highest of the three categories of competence defined in Latvian regulations. 12.  On 10 August 1998 the State Language Centre sent the chairman of the Central Electoral Commission a letter certifying the level of knowledge of the official language attained by a number of candidates on the lists registered for the parliamentary elections. Although the letter referred to the report drawn up by the examiner from the State Language Inspectorate, the report was not appended to it. According to the certificate, of the nine candidates actually examined only the applicant did not have a command of Latvian at the “third level”. Twelve other candidates, who had not been required to take an examination, had documents certifying that their knowledge was at the requisite level. 13.  By a decision of 21 August 1998 the Central Electoral Commission struck the applicant's name out of the list of candidates. 14.  On 27 August 1998 the National Harmony Party, acting on the applicant's behalf, asked the Riga Regional Court to set aside the above decision. In its pleading the party alleged that when the list of candidates in the election was registered a copy of the certificate attesting to the applicant's knowledge of the State language had been supplied to the Central Electoral Commission. It submitted that the Central Electoral Commission should have taken that certificate into account, instead of relying solely on the certificate issued by the State Language Centre, as the two documents contradicted each other. 15.  In a final judgment of 31 August 1998 the Riga Regional Court refused the application on the ground that the Central Electoral Commission had acted within the limits laid down by the Parliamentary Elections Act. In its judgment the Regional Court noted that section 11 of the Act made possession of a certificate of knowledge of the official language at the “third level” by all candidates who had not completed their primary or secondary education in Latvian a prerequisite for the registration of a list of candidates. Consequently, the Central Electoral Commission had complied with the requirements of the Act by deciding to register the list on which the applicant's name appeared. On the other hand, section 13 of the Act empowered the Commission to rectify the lists already registered by striking out the names of candidates whose level of knowledge of the official language had proved to be insufficient; in the applicant's case the inadequacy of her linguistic competence had been confirmed by the State Language Centre's certificate. The Riga Regional Court accordingly held that there had been no breach of the law. 16.  On 14 September 1998 the National Harmony Party, acting on the applicant's behalf, lodged third-party appeals against that judgment with the President of the Civil Division of the Supreme Court and the Attorney-General, asking for the proceedings to be reopened on account of a serious and manifest breach of the substantive legal rules, resulting from faulty interpretation of the Parliamentary Elections Act.
By two letters dated 29 September and 1 October 1998 respectively, the Attorney-General's office and the President of the Civil Division of the Supreme Court dismissed the appeals, ruling that the Regional Court had given reasons for its judgment and that the judgment was in accordance with the law.