44 168. The State indicated that this case “does not refer to independent candidacies, but to the right of groups other than political parties to take part in municipal elections by means of their traditional customs and practices.” That precedent was inapplicable in the instant case because the fundamental issue in Yatama was the restriction of the political participation of a specific sector of the population, while Mr. Castañeda Gutman “claims that ‘citizens without a party’ should be considered a ‘certain group or sector’ of the population.” The State also stressed what the Commission had said in its Report No. 113/06, to the effect that the Court’s conclusion in that case was that “the American Convention is completely compatible with systems of representation that are distinct from the traditional system of political parties, but does not say that a party system is, in itself, contrary to that international instrument.” Lastly, Mexico affirmed that the Yatama case “[…] does not concord with the facts of the one we are dealing with (in that case the community joined the electoral process on the registration dates), either with regard to the type of petitioner involved (an indigenous community), or to the purpose of the application; hence this precedent is not applicable to the instant case.” 169. The Court considers it opportune to recall that in the Yatama case, it found as follows: “202. When examining the enjoyment of these rights by the alleged victims in this case, it must be recalled that they are members of indigenous and ethnic communities of the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua, who differ from most of the population, inter alia, owing to their languages, customs and forms of organization, and they face serious difficulties that place them in a situation of vulnerability and marginalization. […]” “215. There is no provision in the American Convention that allows it to be established that citizens can only exercise the right to stand as candidates to elected office through a political party. The importance of political parties as essential forms of association for the development and strengthening of democracy are not discounted […], but it is recognized that there are other ways in which candidates can be proposed for elected office in order to achieve the same goal, when this is pertinent and even necessary to encourage or ensure the political participation of specific groups of society, taking into account their special traditions and administrative systems, whose legitimacy has been recognized and is even subject to the explicit protection of the State. […]” “217. The Court considers that the participation in public affairs of organizations other than parties, […] is essential to guarantee legitimate political expression and necessary in the case of groups of citizens who, otherwise, would be excluded from this participation, with all that this signifies.” “218. The restriction that they had to participate through a political party imposed on the YATAMA candidates a form of organization alien to their practices, customs and traditions as a requirement to exercise the right to political participation, in violation of domestic laws […] that oblige the State to respect the forms of organization of the communities of the Atlantic Coast, and affected negatively the electoral participation of these candidates in the 2000 municipal elections. The State has not justified that this restriction obeyed a useful and opportune purpose, which made it necessary so as to satisfy an essential public interest. To the contrary, this restriction implied an impediment to the full exercise of the right to be elected of the members of the indigenous and ethnic communities that form part of YATAMA.” “219. Based on the foregoing, the Court considers that the restriction examined in the preceding paragraphs constitutes an undue limitation of the exercise of a political right, entailing an unnecessary restriction of the right to be elected, taking into account the circumstances of the instant case, which are not necessarily comparable to the circumstances of all political groups that may be present in other national societies or sectors of a national society.” (Italics added)