Free and fair elections

Abstract

In 1994, when the IPU published its Free and Fair Elections study and adopted a Declaration on Criteria for Free and Fair Elections, few would have imagined the extent to which ‘freeness’ and ‘fairness’ would become universally recognized as the standard by which the quality of elections is to be judged. The centrality of free and fair elections to democracy was subsequently reconfirmed by IPU Members in 1997 when they adopted the Universal Declaration on Democracy, stipulating that “The key element in the exercise of democracy is the holding of free and fair elections at regular intervals enabling the people’s will to be expressed”.The first edition of Free and Fair Elections defined the constituent elements of a free and fair election with reference to the rules and standards of international law and State practice. The impact of the study, as well as the continuing relevance of the Declaration, was widely acknowledged by electoral experts at an International Round Table on Electoral Standards convened by the IPU in November 2004. Yet the significant growth in the science and practice of elections since 1994, including an expansion in the field of actors, calls for an examination of recent developments in electoral standards. It is therefore right that the IPU should seek to make a further contribution to the understanding and the implementation of the concept of free and fair elections. This second edition of Free and Fair Elections contains two distinct parts. The four entirely new chapters in Part 1 review developments in international law and practice since 1994 and make a general assessment of the influence of the IPU Declaration and study in the development and consolidation of legal norms. The final chapter of Part 1 sets out a number of issues that are emerging - or are likely to emerge - in the field of electoral standards. Accountability, participation and representation, including women’s representation, are among the issues that were identified at the International Round Table on Electoral Standards and are developed here. In Part 2, the full text of the 1994 study is republished with only minor corrections.