Tomenko v. Ukraine, No. 79340/16, ECtHR (Fifth Section), 10 July 2025

Early termination of parliamentary mandate and violation of the right to free elections. 

Art. 3, Prot. 1 ECHR

1. Mykola Volodymyrovych Tomenko, a Ukrainian MP who was elected in 2014 on the Petro Poroshenko Bloc 'Solidarity' list, lost his seat after he left the party's parliamentary faction in disagreement with its 2016 budget policy, which he considered 'anti-humanitarian' and 'anti-social'. A few months later, the party amended its statutes to introduce a 'mandatory mandate' mechanism, allowing the mandates of MPs who left the faction to be revoked. The party applied this internal rule to terminate Tomenko's mandate and that of another MP early, replacing them with two candidates from the list. Tomenko challenged the decision in the Ukrainian Supreme Administrative Court, arguing that the termination of his mandate was unlawful as there was no law governing the conditions and procedures for doing so, as required by the Constitution. The appeal was dismissed, confirming the validity of the revocation. 

2. The European Court of Human Rights ruled that ending the applicant's mandate prematurely violated Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention, which safeguards the right to free elections. The Court noted, in particular, that there was no clear regulatory framework to limit the discretionary powers of political parties or to provide procedural safeguards against arbitrariness. The Court also observed that Ukrainian MPs represent the people as a whole, rather than the political parties to which they belong. Furthermore, it was deemed that the retroactive application of the 'imperative mandate' mechanism was both unpredictable and disproportionate. The party's decision, which was not based on legislation and was not subject to any oversight, was incompatible with the rule of law and the free expression of the people's will.