An on-line database of electorally-relevant legislation
and election
results from post-communist countries has been constructed by the
University of Essex, the International Foundation for Election Systems
(IFES), the Association of Central and Eastern European Election
Officials (ACEEEO). The aim of the joint project is to provide a
resource to assist lawmakers, election officials, and elections
practitioners, as well academics and other researchers.
The database can be found at http://www.essex.ac.uk/elections/.
National level parliamentary election results and electorally-relevant
legislation from 11 countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia,
Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Ukraine)
are currently available.
The web-site is still under construction,
and the data available are
still incomplete (especially as regards election results). National
level election results and legislation for other countries will be
added gradually. The next in line are Moldova, Macedonia, Croatia,
Slovenia in that order.
on the elaboration of a recommendation containing the norms of uniform electoral procedure
Budapest, 4th February 1999
Assisting the development of electoral systems in the Central and Eastern European region through the exchange of information, the submission of proposals and recommendations is the essential task of ACEEEO. The development of the suffrage is the principal field of this activity.
It is characteristic of the whole region that the expression "elections" relates to different procedures (election of MPs, local governments, etc.) and these procedures are governed by more or less different regulatory acts. The analyses carried out in the recent period confirmed that only part of these differences is justified. Often these differences have no reasonable explication except for that the regulatory norms have been conceived in different time and the elaboration thereof was the act of different persons.
The unjustified differences may lead to many practical problems. In this manner for example, a lot of money and energy must be devoted to the preparation of those taking part in the elections and nevertheless, the chance of committing major mistakes is marked. These unfavourable experiences have lead Hungary to enact in 1997 following years of drafting the Act on Electoral Procedure. This Act contains on the one hand the regulations applicable to all electoral procedures (general part) and it comprises the special norms (specific part) relating to the specific types of procedure. Since the enactment of the uniform procedural law the laws relating to the individual elections comprise only the substantive rules.
This solution has turned out to be workable in Hungary. The favourable experience was the starting point of the idea that the standardisation of procedural norms should be promoted in the other ACEEEO countries too. For this purpose there should be a recommendation that profiting from the experiences of the countries in the region and the knowledge of the international community would provide ideas for the electoral experts of the ACEEEO countries to elaborate the optimal procedures.
The proposed document would
contain in a regulatory-like manner the recommended norms of the electoral procedures,
provide a choice of the specific procedural institutions (offering alternative solutions),
contain justification (interpretation) facilitating the comprehension and acceptance of the individual solutions.
Source materials and working methods
During the compilation of the document the following sources should be used:
the current electoral norms of the ACEEEO-countries,
the practical experiences of the election experts of the region,
the available international comparative papers.
Section 3 of this proposal contains the list of topics constituting the subject matter of the recommendation. Should the Board of ACEEEO accept this list on its coming meeting in Riga the Secretariat will provide for the preparation of the draft recommendation and the justification thereof (interpretation). In some topics with prominent importance preliminary analyses would be prepared that could be used during the finalisation of the text.
The members of ACEEEO should receive the draft recommendation and the draft justification thereof by 31st July at the latest (or it would be accessible on the Internet) and it would be open for giving opinions by 31st August. The revised version would be put on the agenda of ACEEEO's congress in the fall of this year and the finalised document would be sent to those interested as the recommendation of the Congress.
The tenor of the recommendation and the topics requiring further detailed analysis
According to our preliminary conception the recommendation would consist of two parts: the first one would contain the norms applicable to all electoral procedures while the second part would sum up the special rules pertaining to the specific procedures. The justification relating to the specific legal institutions would be a complement to this.
3.1.1. Basic principles and rules of procedure
3.1.2. The publicity of the electoral procedure
3.1.3. Constituencies and wards
3.1.4. Drawing up the electoral register (registration of the constituents)
3.1.5. Electoral bodies
3.1.6. Electoral campaign
3.1.7. Financing the electoral campaign
3.1.8. The rules of putting up the candidates
3.1.9. The electoral order
3.1.10. Counting the votes and the establishment of the election's results
3.1.11. The order of remedies
Special rules
Election of MPs'
Election of the President of the Republic
Municipal elections
National and local referenda
By-elections
Elections of the representative bodies of national and ethnic minorities
According to our conception only the General Part would be drawn up in the first phase (Section 2) and the drawing up of the special rules would follow only subsequent to the adoption thereof.
Topics requiring more detailed analysis
According to our preliminary conception with the majority of the items it will be sufficient to collect the source materials with the methods listed in Section 2 and to draw up the draft recommendation on the basis of analysing them. There are however some topics where a more thorough preparatory works are required, mainly because of the complexity of the topic and also to review country by country the different solutions. The following topics make part this range of the subject matter:
3.3.1. The drawing up of the list of constituents
3.3.2. Electoral bodies
3.3.3. The regulation of funds applicable to the electoral campaign
3.3.4. Rules of putting up the candidates
3.3.5. Systems of remedies
Besides what has been said above it would be expedient to prepare an analysis that on the basis of the region's regulations would provide an insight look into the relation of substantive law and procedural rules as well as the possibilities of applying collectively the general and specific procedural norms.
Sgd István ZSUFFA, Dr.