90 Council resolved not to register the candidates proposed by YATAMA in the RAAS, it considered that, since the party that had presented itself in alliance with YATAMA was excluded, YATAMA alone did not comply with the requirement that it should present candidates in 80% of the municipalities in the territorial district (supra para. 124(51)(a)). 222. The witness, Brooklyn Rivera Bryan, explained that: They were obliged to [...] enter in other areas where there were no indigenous people, because the Electoral Act makes it obligatory to have 80% of the candidates that must be registered in all the municipalities. Consequently, in the Autonomous Region, there are indigenous municipalities where they predominate, where they exercise their leadership and structure, but there are other municipalities which are mestizo or ladino [with which they have] no connection or interest, but the law obliges them to organize and take part in the processes in these municipalities; otherwise [they would] be disqualified from participating in the elections. 223. This requirement of Electoral Act No. 331 of 2000 constitutes a disproportionate restriction that limited unduly the political participation of the candidates proposed by YATAMA for the municipal elections of November 2000. It did not take into account that the indigenous and ethnic population is a minority in the RAAS, or that there were municipalities in which they did not have the support to present candidates or where they were not interested in seeking this support. * * * 224. The Court finds that Nicaragua did not adopt the necessary measures to guarantee the enjoyment of the right to be elected of the candidates proposed by YATAMA, who are members of the indigenous and ethnic communities of the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua, because they were affected by legal and real discrimination, which prevented them from participating, in equal conditions, in the municipal elections of November 2000. 225. The Court considers that the State should adopt all necessary measures to ensure that the members of the indigenous and ethnic communities of the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua can participate, in equal conditions, in decision-making on matters and policies that affect or could affect their rights and the development of these communities, so that they can incorporate State institutions and bodies and participate directly and proportionately to their population in the conduct of public affairs, and also do this from within their own institutions and according to their values, practices, customs and forms of organization, provided these are compatible with the human rights embodied in the Convention. * * * 226. The violations of the rights of the candidates proposed by YATAMA are particularly serious because, as mentioned above, there is a close relationship between the right to be elected and the right to vote to elect representatives (supra para. 197). The Court finds it necessary to observe that the voters were affected as a result of the violation of the right to be elected of the YATAMA candidates. In the instant case, this exclusion meant that the candidates proposed by YATAMA were not included among the options available to the voters, which represented a direct limitation to the exercise of the vote and affected negatively the broadest and freest expression of the