4.  The applicant was born in 1971 and lives in Tbilisi. 5.  On 29 March 2006 the applicant was convicted of conspiracy to commit extortion and sentenced to four years’ imprisonment. The sentence was upheld on appeal on 30 June 2006. Pursuant to Article 5 § 2 of the Electoral Code and Article 28 § 2 of the Constitution, the applicant was debarred, as a convicted prisoner, from participating in any elections. 6.  On 25 July 2007 the applicant challenged the constitutionality of the ban under Article 5 § 2 of the Electoral Code in relation to Article 28 of the Constitution. He referred to the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights on prisoners’ voting rights and submitted, among other things, that he would be unable to participate in the parliamentary elections in 2008. 7.  On 31 March 2008 the Constitutional Court declared the application inadmissible in view of an identical restriction contained in the Constitution. It noted the following:
“It would be absolutely futile for the Constitutional Court to abolish the impugned provision [Article 5 § 2 of the Electoral Code] as this will not relieve the complainant of the restriction placed upon him by Article 28 § 2 of the Constitution. To achieve [this latter result] it would be necessary to introduce amendments with respect to the relevant provision of the Constitution, which is beyond the Constitutional Court’s competence. ...
... the Parliament of Georgia has directly copied the prohibition contained in Article 28 § 2 of the Constitution into Article 5 § 2 of the Electoral Code. The impugned provision is [thus] analogous to the rule contained in Article 28 § 2 of the Constitution and its constitutionality ‒ which implies the assessment of a constitutional norm’s constitutionality ‒ is not within the Constitutional Court’s jurisdiction.” 8.  As a result, the applicant was unable to vote in the parliamentary elections held on 21 May 2008.