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Measures to improve the democratic character of elections in Council of Europe member States
Venice Commission
Venice Commission
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Measures.pdf
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"1. This document is a follow-up to the report on “measures to improve the democratic nature of elections in Council of Europe member states” (CDL-AD(2012)005), adopted by the Council for Democratic Elections at its 40th meeting and the Venice Commission at its 90th session (March 2012). It has been revised on the basis of proposals made at the 41st Meeting of the Council for Democratic Elections which took place in Venice on 14 June 2012The aim of this revised document is to identify more precisely the type of general activities which the Commission could carry out in the electoral field in the future. 2. The reference document for the Venice Commission, and indeed the Council of Europe, for defining the “European Electoral Heritage” is the Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters (CDL-AD(2002)023rev). In addition, the Commission has looked in greater detail at a number of election-related topics. It will be noted that studies and reports have been undertaken on the following major issues: the election process, electoral systems, voting rights, gender issues, national minorities, referendums, political parties and election observation and evaluation. 3. The report cited above (CDL-AD(2012)005) identified the following topics which are currently being addressed or which could be further developed (paragraph 18 et seq): - the use of administrative resources; - the limitation of parliamentary terms of office (limiting the duration of terms of office and concurrent offices); - state neutrality and administration in the electoral process; - the independence of electoral commissions, the logical follow-on from the previous point; - the question of the rules applying to the media, both public and private, in ordinary times and particularly during election campaigns; - the question of election campaign funding, and especially the rules applying to funding from legal entities (limitation, publication, prohibition); - the effectiveness of appeals in electoral matters and the guarantees they offer; - the methods adopted by political parties in the selection process of candidates presented for election on a particular party’s ticket; - representation of women in parliaments; - representation of minorities in parliaments. 4. It should, however, be noted that work has already been or is currently being carried out on these topics. Nevertheless, there are a number of avenues to explore for taking this work further. These will be discussed below, and accordingly, we shall be revisiting the various topics identified in the report referred to above and completing them by other issues and suggestions for work or study."
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2012-09-24
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