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European electoral heritage - 10 years of the code of good practice in electoral matters
Venice Commission
Venice Commission
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Abstract
"It goes without saying that democracy, first of all, needs the commitment of the state authorities and other stakeholders, such as political parties and the media, to conduct free and fair elections. But electoral laws matter as well, because the regulations on electoral administration, campaigning, voting procedures, etc., may be a more or less favourable framework for implementing the constitutional principles of democratic suffrage. This is particularly true for CEE countries which, unlike Western democracies, have neither a long-standing tradition of rule of law nor an administrative history based on the bureaucratic principle of impartiality. Due to these contextual differences, electoral legislation from Western Europe could not serve as a blueprint for CEE countries. Instead, the electoral codes that were introduced in the region during the early 1990s have been constantly amended. Within this process, international organisations have played an important role. Many recommendations of the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR), based on regular electoral monitoring, were taken up by national authorities. Additionally, the Council of Europe made a great effort to standardise the notion of European electoral heritage in the “Code of good practice in electoral matters” (CDLAD (2002) 23 rev; hereinafter referred to as “the Code”), which provides generally accepted guidelines for implementing the principles of democratic suffrage. As a consequence, electoral legislation in CEE countries has considerably improved since the 1990s. Nevertheless, various shortcomings in the democratic quality of elections remain. As highlighted by the “Report on electoral law and electoral administration in Europe” adopted in 2006 (CDL-AD (2006) 18, hereinafter referred to as “the 2006 Report”), electoral practice in several CEE countries has been problematic, suggesting the need for further debate and potential amendments. Following up from the 2006 Report, this paper tries to shed some light on recurrent problems of electoral legislation in CEE countries. For the sake of conciseness, it will focus on five issues that may be regarded as major challenges on the way to an electoral practice that meets international democratic standards. The next section will elaborate on these issues, illustrating the relevant problems with observations from recent elections in selected CEE countries." (pp. 5-6)
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Book
Date
2013-04
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9789287176530
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With permission of the license/copyright holder