3619 Results
Quotes
Quotes based on international documents, law, and treaties- "For any EMB to be credible and effective, sufficient and timely funds must be made available to it..."
- "The legal framework should require that all levels of electoral bodies be established in a timely manner before an election and be adequately funded. It is crucial that the legal framework contains provisions as to how funding for the ongoing operations of the EMB will be made available. Some of the major methods of funding election operations are: The budget is allocated to an EMB through a department of the government (though in many emerging democracies this arrangement has not worked very satisfactorily); The budget is directly voted by parliament without the intervention of a department, sometimes through the medium of a standing all-party parliamentary committee; A lump sum advance allocation, with some guiding principles, is provided for. Once the EMB has conducted the electoral operation and exhausted that amount, the necessary audited sums are approved by the legislature; The EMB has direct and uncontrolled access to the State treasury for funding elections and reports to parliament only after an election."
- "The election administration should be provided with a transparent, sufficient, and independent budget."
- "Whatever the particular characteristics of the respective national system for funding various election processes, the election administration should be provided, in a transparent manner, with funds from the state or municipal budget sufficient to meet its responsibilities. The independence of the election administration can be enhanced if it has its own public budget, at established levels, rather than allocated through an ad hoc budgetary process."
- "To further enhance the independence and impartiality of the Electoral Commission it should have its own budget directly voted for by Parliament and not gets its allocation form a Ministry or a Government Department."
- "The station and the polling board (and staff, if applicable) should be of sufficient size to handle the expected number of voters."
- "States parties shall strive to institutionalize good political governance through: 1. Accountable, efficient and effective public administration."
- "This includes, inter alia, the right, individually and in association with others, to submit to governmental bodies and agencies and organizations concerned with public affairs criticism and proposals for improving their functioning and to draw attention to any aspect of their work that may hinder or impede the promotion, protection and realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms."
- "Everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to the lawful exercise of his or her occupation or profession. Everyone who, as a result of his or her profession, can affect the human dignity, human rights and fundamental freedoms of others should respect those rights and freedoms and comply with relevant national and international standards of occupational and professional conduct or ethics."
- "Practical organization and information of the electorate: ...to liaise closely with the officials who are running the election in order to be satisfied that all stages of the election campaign, the poll and the count are conducted in accordance with the election law."
- "An election administration should…(i) Comply with the laws of the country. (ii) Ensure, within the legal framework of the country, that the laws relating to elections are fully implemented in an impartial and equitable fashion. (iii) Ensure, within the legal framework of the country, that every party, candidates, voter and other participant in the election process is treated in a way that is fair and just, considering all the circumstances."
- "Every individual and political party participant in elections shall recognize the authority of the Electoral Commission or any statutory body empowered to oversee the electoral process and accordingly render full cooperation to such a Commission/Body in order to facilitate their duties."
- "Each time elections are scheduled, the dates set out in the calendar for each phase of the process must allow adequate time for effective campaigning and public information efforts, for voters to inform themselves, and for the necessary administrative, legal, training and logistic arrangements to be made. The electoral calendar should itself be publicized as part of civic information activities, in the interests of transparency and of securing public understanding and confidence in the process."
- "In addition, the electoral calendar should provide adequate time for campaigning and public information efforts."
- "State Parties shall recognize popular participation through universal suffrage as the inalienable right of the people."
- "People must know their rights to use them; hence sufficient civic and voter education is a prerequisite for the facts of universality and equality."
- "Protecting the right of persons with disabilities to vote by secret ballot in elections and public referendums without intimidation, and to stand for elections, to effectively hold office and perform all public functions at all levels of government, facilitating the use of assistive and new technologies where appropriate;"
- "1. The Parties hereto proceed from the assumption that observance of the principle of secret balloting means exclusion of any control over voters’ expression of will, provision for equal conditions for free choice. 2. The citizens’ right to a secret balloting cannot be limited in any way and by whatsoever. 3. Conducting of elections shall be executed with the use of secret balloting procedure. 4. Electoral bodies are obliged to assure observance of the conditions stipulated by the Constitution, law, other legal acts that exclude the possibility to exert any control or monitoring over filling in the voting paper by the voter in the place of a secret balloting, performance of any actions violating the principle of voter’s secret will expression."
- "To ensure that the will of the people serves as the basis of the authority of government, the participating states will: (7.4) ensure that votes are cast by secret ballot or by equivalent free voting procedure, and that they are counted and reported honestly with the official results made public."
- "The right to vote in secret is absolute and shall not be restricted in any manner whatsoever."
- "Voting procedures [should] guarantee secrecy of the ballot."
- "The right of eligible individuals to vote unimpeded and the right to vote in secrecy in a ballot box should be protected and enshrined in the constitutions of the SADC countries."
- "States should take measures to guarantee the requirement of the secrecy of the vote during elections, including absentee voting, where such a system exists. This implies that voters should be protected from any form of coercion or compulsion to disclose how they intend to vote or how they voted, and from any unlawful or arbitrary interference with the voting process... The security of ballot boxes must be guaranteed and votes should be counted in the presence of the candidates or their agents."
- "Appropriate steps should be taken to ensure the secrecy of the ballot, which is one of the most important single features in the democratic process."
- "Security arrangements and safeguards against fraud: ...ensuring that proper arrangements have been made for the security of the polling stations and the ballot boxes/papers during and after the poll and during and after the count."
- "Observers are responsible for seeing that the election have been conducted in accordance with the following requirements… that the secrecy of the ballot has been maintained."
- "The secrecy of the ballot is one of the great pillars on which free and fair, credible and legitimate elections rest. To avoid suspicion, mistrust, political violence, intimidation and fear of political retribution and victimisation voters, election officials, party agents and party supporters need to be assured that their vote will be secret."
- "No member of a polling station committee or any other person, except during the counting of ballots, should be allowed to see a voter’s marked ballot. Obviously, this prohibition does not apply to a person legally authorized to assist a blind voter or a voter requiring assistance due to a physical infirmity or illiteracy in certain cases. However, a member of a polling station committee should not handle or control the voter’s marked ballot before it is placed in the ballot box."
- "The principle of secrecy of the ballot requires legislation to ensure that secret voting is not only a right on the part of the voter but an absolute obligation."
- "The vote should be cast personally in full secrecy…"
- "Ballot secrecy is not only a right on the part of the voter, but an absolute obligation."
- "Under no circumstances, except for counting of ballots after close of the polling, should a polling station committee member or other person be allowed to see a voter’s marked ballot. Obviously, this prohibition does not apply to a person legally authorised to assist a blind voter or a voter requiring assistance due to physical infirmity."
- "Election officials should under no circumstances accept deviations from the principle of secrecy of the vote."
- "For the voter, secrecy of voting is not only a right but also a duty, non-compliance with which must be punishable by disqualification of any ballot paper whose content is disclosed."
- "The list of persons actually voting should not be published."
- "It will be important to consider what steps have been taken by the host government to explain to the public their right to vote and the fact that they may do so secretly and without fear of reprisal. This will be a vital factor especially in the case of peoples who have never before experienced a democratic election."
- "The matter of the secrecy of the ballot should be carefully explained…so that each voter may be assured that no threats of or actual victimisation would be visited on any voter as a result of how they voted."
- "The secrecy of the ballot should be…the focus of voter-education efforts, so that the public will be confident in these protections."
- "[C]ivic education should aim to inform voters...what guarantees are in place to protect their right to participate confidentially in the process."
- "1. Each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes to respect and to ensure to all individuals within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the rights recognized in the present Covenant, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. 2. Where not already provided for by existing legislative or other measures, each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes to take the necessary steps, in accordance with its constitutional processes and with the provisions of the present Covenant, to adopt such legislative or other measures as may be necessary to give effect to the rights recognized in the present Covenant. 3. Each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes: (a) To ensure that any person whose rights or freedoms as herein recognized are violated shall have an effective remedy, notwithstanding that the violation has been committed by persons acting in an official capacity; (b) To ensure that any person claiming such a remedy shall have his right thereto determined by competent judicial, administrative or legislative authorities, or by any other competent authority provided for by the legal system of the State, and to develop the possibilities of judicial remedy; (c) To ensure that the competent authorities shall enforce such remedies when granted."
- "Every citizen has the right to vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret ballot, guaranteeing the free expression of the will of the voter."
- "Women shall be entitled to vote in all elections on equal terms with men, without any discrimination."
- "Migrant workers and members of their families shall have the right to participate in public affairs of their State of origin and to vote and to be elected at elections of that State, in accordance with its legislation."
- "In applying the provisions of this Convention, Governments shall: Establish means by which these peoples can freely participate, to at least the same extent as other sectors of the population, at all levels of decision-making in elective institutions and administrative and other bodies responsible for policies and programmes which concern them."
- "To ensure that persons with disabilities can effectively and fully participate in political and public life on an equal basis with others, directly or through freely chosen representatives, including the right and opportunity for persons with disabilities to vote and be elected,"
- "Every citizen of the Union has the right to vote and to stand as a candidate at municipal elections in the Member State in which he or she resides under the same conditions as nationals of that State."
- "Every citizen shall have the right to participate freely in the government of his country, either directly or through freely chosen representatives in accordance with the provisions of the law."
- "The High Contracting Parties agree that the right to vote and to be elected at national office shall not be denies or abridged by reason of sex."
- "The observance of the principle of universal suffrage means: a) every citizen, upon coming up to the age fixed by the Constitution, laws, has the right to elect and to be elected to the bodies of state power, to local self-governments, other bodies of people’s (national) representation, to elective posts on the conditions and in line with procedures stipulated by the Constitution and laws."
- "Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives."