3619 Results
Quotes
Quotes based on international documents, law, and treaties- "Fundamental rules include, in particular, those concerning: - the composition of electoral commissions or any other body responsible for organising the referendum; - the franchise and electoral registers; - the procedural and substantive validity of the text put to a referendum; - the effects of the referendum (with the exception of rules concerning matters of detail) - the participation of the proposal’s supporters and opponents to broadcasts of public media. "
- "An impartial body must be in charge of organising the referendum. "
- "Where there is no longstanding tradition of administrative authorities’ impartiality in electoral matters, independent, impartial electoral commissions must be set up at all levels, from the national level to polling station level. "
- "The central commission must be permanent in nature. "
- "Organisation of the referendum by an impartial body d. It should include: i. at least one member of the judiciary or other independent legal expert; ii. representatives of parties already in Parliament or having scored at least a given percentage of the vote; these persons must be qualified in electoral matters. It may include: iii. a representative of the Ministry of the Interior; iv. representatives of national minorities. "
- "The bodies appointing members of commissions must not be free to dismiss them at will. "
- " Members of commissions must receive standard training. "
- "It is desirable that commissions take decisions by a qualified majority or by consensus. "
- "Both national and international observers should be given the widest possible opportunity to participate in a referendum observation exercise. "
- "Observation must not be confined to election day itself, but must include the referendum campaign and, where appropriate, the voter registration period and the signature collection period. It must make it possible to determine whether irregularities occurred before, during or after the vote. It must always be possible during vote counting. "
- "Observers should be able to go everywhere where operations connected with the referendum are taking place (for example, vote counting and verification). The places where observers are not entitled to be present should be clearly specified by law, with the reasons for their being banned. "
- "Observation should cover respect by the authorities of their duty of neutrality. "
- "The appeal body in referendum matters should be either an electoral commission or a court. In any case, final appeal to a court must be possible. "
- "The procedure must be simple and devoid of formalism, in particular where the admissibility of appeals is concerned. "
- "The appeal procedure and, in particular, the powers and responsibilities of the various bodies should be clearly regulated by law, so as to avoid conflicts of jurisdiction (whether positive or negative). The law must specifically designate the competent body in each case. "
- "The appeal body must be competent to deal with the sphere covered by these guidelines, in particular with: - the franchise and electoral registers; - the completion of popular initiatives and requests for referendums from a section of the electorate; - the procedural and, where applicable, substantive validity of texts submitted to a referendum: the review of the validity of texts should take place before the vote; domestic law determines whether such review is obligatory or optional; - respect for free suffrage: - the results of the ballot. "
- "The appeal body must have authority to annul the referendum where irregularities may have affected the outcome. It must be possible to annul the entire referendum or merely the results for one polling station or constituency. In the event of annulment of the global result, a new referendum must be called. "
- "All voters must be entitled to appeal. A reasonable quorum may be imposed for appeals by voters against the results of a referendum. "
- "Time-limits for lodging and deciding appeals must be short. "
- "The applicant’s right to a hearing involving both parties must be protected. "
- "Where the appeal body is a higher electoral commission, it must be able ex officio to rectify or set aside decisions taken by lower electoral commissions. "
- "The general rules on the funding of political parties and electoral campaigns must be applied to both public and private funding. "
- "The use of public funds by the authorities for campaigning purposes must be prohibited. "
- "The use of referendums must comply with the legal system as a whole, and especially the procedural rules. In particular, referendums cannot be held if the Constitution or a statute in conformity with the Constitution does not provide for them, for example where the text submitted to a referendum is a matter for Parliament’s exclusive jurisdiction. "
- "The procedural validity of texts submitted to a referendum Questions submitted to a referendum must respect: - unity of form: the same question must not combine a specifically-worded draft amendment with a generally-worded proposal or a question of principle; - unity of content: except in the case of total revision of a text (Constitution, law), there must be an intrinsic connection between the various parts of each question put to the vote, in order to guarantee the free suffrage of the voter, who must not be called to accept or refuse as a whole provisions without an intrinsic link; the revision of several chapters of a text at the same time is equivalent to a total revision; - unity of hierarchical level: it is desirable that the same question should not simultaneously apply to legislation of different hierarchical levels. "
- "The substantive validity of texts submitted to a referendum Texts submitted to a referendum must comply with all superior law (principle of the hierarchy of norms). They must not be contrary to international law or to the Council of Europe’s statutory principles (democracy, human rights and the rule of law). "
- "Everyone enjoying political rights is entitled to sign a popular initiative or request for a referendum. "
- "The time-limit for collecting signatures (particularly the day on which the time-limit starts to run and the last day of the time-limit) must be clearly specified, as well as the number of signatures to be collected. "
- "Everyone (regardless of whether he or she enjoys political rights) must be entitled to collect signatures. "
- "If authorisation is required in order to gather signatures for popular initiatives or requests for a referendum on public thoroughfares, such authorisation may be refused only in specific cases provided for by law, on the basis of overriding public interest and in accordance with the principle of equality. "
- "Payment from private sources for the collection of signatures for popular initiatives and requests for referendums should, as a rule, be prohibited. If permitted, it must be regulated, with regard to both the total amount allocated and the amount paid to each person. "
- "All signatures must be checked. In order to facilitate checking, lists of signatures should preferably contain the names of electors registered in the same municipality. "
- "In order to avoid having to declare a vote totally invalid, an authority must have the power, prior to the vote, to correct faulty drafting, for example: i. when the question is obscure, misleading or suggestive; ii. when rules on procedural or substantive validity have been violated; in this event, partial invalidity may be declared if the remaining text is coherent; subdivision may be envisaged to correct a lack of substantive unity. "
- "When the referendum is legally binding: i. For a certain period of time, a text that has been rejected in a referendum may not be adopted by a procedure without referendum. ii. During the same period of time, a provision that has been accepted in a referendum may not be revised by another method. iii. The above does not apply in the case of a referendum on partial revision of a text, where the previous referendum concerned a total revision. iv. The revision of a rule of superior law that is contrary to the popular vote is not legally unacceptable but should be avoided during the above-mentioned period. v. In the event of rejection of a text adopted by Parliament and put to the popular vote at the request of a section of the electorate, a similar new text must not be put to the vote unless a referendum is requested. "
- "When a text is adopted by referendum at the request of a section of the electorate, it should be possible to organise a further referendum on the same issue at the request of a section of the electorate, after the expiry, where applicable, of a reasonable period of time. "
- "When a text is adopted by referendum at the request of an authority other than Parliament, it should be possible to revise it either by parliamentary means or by referendum, at the request of Parliament or a section of the electorate, after the expiry, where applicable, of the same period of time. "
- "When a text is adopted by referendum at the request of a section of the electorate, it should be possible to organise a further referendum on the same issue at the request of a section of the electorate, after the expiry, where applicable, of a reasonable period of time. "
- "When a text is adopted by referendum at the request of an authority other than Parliament, it should be possible to revise it either by parliamentary means or by referendum, at the request of Parliament or a section of the electorate, after the expiry, where applicable, of the same period of time. "
- "It is advisable for constitutional rules relating to referendums to be put to a referendum, compulsorily or at the request of a section of the electorate. "
- "When a text is put to the vote at the request of a section of the electorate or an authority other than Parliament, Parliament must be able to give a non-binding opinion on the text put to the vote. In the case of the popular initiatives, it may be entitled to put forward a counter-proposal to the proposed text, which will be put to the popular vote at the same time. A deadline must be set for Parliament to give its opinion: if this deadline is not met, the text will be put to the popular vote without Parliament’s opinion. "
- "It is advisable not to provide for: a. a turn-out quorum (threshold, minimum percentage), because it assimilates voters who abstain to those who vote no. "
- "It is advisable not to provide for: b. an approval quorum (approval by a minimum percentage of registered voters), since it risks involving a difficult political situation if the draft is adopted by a simple majority lower than the necessary threshold." "
- "The effects of legally binding or consultative referendums must be clearly specified in the Constitution or by law. "
- "Referendums on questions of principle or other generally-worded proposals should preferably not be binding. If they are binding, the subsequent procedure should be laid down in specific rules. "
- "Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 to the ECHR states that “(t)he High Contracting Parties undertake to hold free elections at reasonable intervals by secret ballot, under conditions which will ensure the free expression of the opinion of the people in the choice of the legislature”. It does not deal with the vote of citizens abroad in particular. "
- "The European Court of Human Rights held that the restriction of the right to vote to citizens resident in national territory could be justified on the following grounds: “(1) the assumption that a non-resident citizen is less directly or continuously concerned with, and has less knowledge of, a country’s day-to-day problems; (2) the impracticality and sometimes undesirability (in some cases impossibility) of parliamentary candidates presenting the different electoral issues to citizens living abroad so as to secure the free expression of opinion; (3) the influence of resident citizens on the selection of candidates and on the formulation of their electoral programmes; and (4) the correlation between one’s right to vote in parliamentary elections and being directly affected by the acts of the political bodies so elected”. "
- "The Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters produced by the Venice Commission provides simply that “the right to vote and to be elected may be accorded to citizens residing abroad”, without making it a requirement to grant such a right. "
- "Voting from abroad is subject to a number of practical conditions, beginning with registration on the electoral roll. Generally, a prior application is required from the citizen abroad (“active” registration system). In these cases, it is necessary to determine the deadline for citizens to register, the form required for this type of declaration and the authority to which these applications must be made. "
- "Out-of-country voting guarantees equality between citizens living in the country and expatriates. "
- "Formal restrictions on the exercise of the right to vote of citizens residing abroad pose no problems. They include: - registration on a consular electoral roll - the need for a written application - registration in the municipality of origin - presentation of a personally issued voter’s card - presentation of a passport or resident’s card. "