633 Results
Quotes
Quotes based on international documents, law, and treaties- "States Parties shall guarantee to persons with disabilities political rights and the opportunity to enjoy them on an equal basis with others, and shall undertake: Ensuring that voting procedures, facilities and materials are appropriate, accessible and easy to understand and use; Protecting the right of persons with disabilities to vote by secret ballot in elections and public referendums without intimidation, and to stand for elections."
- "Where appropriate, special attention should be devoted to the steps to be followed by disabled voters, for example, the blind, and disadvantaged voters, that is to say, illiterates."
- "Multimedia methods should be employed to provide effective civic education to people with various levels of literacy."
- "Voter education campaigns should extend throughout the territory of the country, including to rural and outlying areas."
- "Voter information should be accessible to all members of society, regardless of their language or level of literacy."
- "Freedom of expression, assembly and association are essential conditions for the effective exercise of the right to vote and must be fully protected. Positive measures should be taken to overcome specific difficulties, such as illiteracy, language barriers, poverty or impediments to freedom of movement which prevent persons entitled to vote from exercising their rights effectively. Information and materials about voting should be available in minority languages. Specific methods, such as photographs and symbols, should be adopted to ensure that illiterate voters have adequate information on which to base their choice. States parties should indicate in their reports the manner in which the difficulties highlighted in this paragraph are dealt with."
- "Monitoring voter education and public-information campaigns will also provide useful knowledge about the level of information that is made available to national minorities, whether this information is provided in minority languages, and whether it includes any element of bias."
- "Literature should be widely available and should be published in the various national languages to help ensure the meaningful participation of all eligible voters."
- "Particular note should be taken of the way in which illiterate people are informed about election procedures."
- "Voter education materials should be multimedia and multilingual, and culturally appropriate for various social groups."
- "The public authorities have a number of positive obligations; inter alia, they must: i. submit the candidatures received to the electorate ii. enable voters to know the lists and candidates standing for election, for example through appropriate posting. iii. The above information must also be available in the languages of the national minorities. "
- "The legal framework should clearly provide for notification of the dates for commencement and closure of nominations; specify when, how and where nomination procedures must be undertaken; and set out the process of scrutiny and verification of nomination forms and declarations. Where the legal framework requires the support of a nomination by the collection of signatures, it should provide for a reasonable timeframe for this to be done and for the subsequent verification of the signatures."
- "The legal framework should clearly set forth all details on this issue for a particular election. This includes the dates for commencement and closure of registration, during what time period and how signatures are to be collected where registration is to be established by signatures, and the process of verification of registration. Where the legal framework provides for the collection of signatures, it should provide for a reasonable amount of time for collection of the signatures. The legal framework should provide for uniformity in the registration process so that the same process applies to all candidates at all levels."
- "It is unreasonable to restrict the right to vote on the ground of physical disability or to impose literacy, educational or property requirements. Party membership should not be a condition of eligibility to vote, nor a ground of disqualification."
- "Persons who are otherwise eligible to stand election should not be excluded by unreasonable or discriminatory requirements such as education, residence, or descent, or by reason of political affiliation."
- "To ensure that the will of the people serves as the basis of the authority of government, the participating States will: respect the right of citizens to seek political or public office, individually or as representatives of political parties or organizations, without discrimination."
- "Candidates seeking office must be permitted to run either as party candidates or individually. In countries using proportionate representation based on party list voting, parties must be allowed to include persons who are not party members on the party lists. In addition, candidates cannot be discriminated against regardless of party affiliation or lack thereof."
- "The fairness of a campaign will be undermined where state resources are unreasonably used to favour the campaign of one candidate or political party. State resources – such as the use of public buildings for campaign events – should be available on an equitable basis to all contestants."
- "The level playing field metaphor is used to describe a process that protects equal treatment and fair opportunity. It is evaluated by considering, among other issues: (1) the degree to which competitors are afforded equitable access to…media access and news coverage."
- "The ideal requirements for political finance regulation in post-conflict societies listed below should be viewed as goals for the international community to achieve given the challenging constraints in which they are operating. There are three key requirements in the areas of legal framework, resources for political actors and institutions..2. Sufficient funding and other resources for electoral participants to effectively compete in elections and to remain committed to and confident in the fairness of the electoral process, including: Some form of (1) monetary support (perhaps through international trust funds) to provide electoral participants with effective competitive capacity."
- "The state should enable new parties to enter the political arena and compete under fair conditions with more well-established parties."
- "Public funding should enable new and smaller parties to participate on an equal footing with parties having more financial resources."
- "Equality of opportunity must be guaranteed for parties and candidates alike. This entails a neutral attitude by state authorities, in particular with regard to: iii. public funding of parties and campaigns."
- "Authentic elections assume equal and fair legal conditions for registration of candidates, lists of candidates and political parties (coalitions). Registration requirements should be clear, and they should not include conditions that may become the grounds for limitations or privileges of a discriminatory nature. Any arbitrary or discriminatory application of norms for registration of political parties (coalitions), candidates, lists of candidates is not allowed."
- "The provisions for registration of political parties must not be designed to exclude political competitors."
- "‘Threshold’ requirements can…limit the representation possibilities for parties that fail to obtain a certain percentage of the vote."
- ""FAIR" [is] an electoral process where the "playing field" is reasonably level and accessible to all electors, parties and candidates..."
- "The legal framework should ensure that all political parties and candidates are able to compete in elections on the basis of equitable treatment."
- "If there are no credible opposition candidates, unreasonable restrictions on the formation or conduct of political parties or candidates, or no reasonable prospect that voters would have the power to vote incumbents out of office, then the genuineness of elections is called into question."
- "Paragraph 7.6 [of the Copenhagen Document] requires that the government provide political parties and organisations "with the necessary legal guarantees to enable them to compete with each other on a basis of equal treatment before the law and by the authorities"."
- "In the context of elections, the expression "level playing field" refers to a requirements that the election rules and regulations apply fairly to all political parties and candidates. It requires that the Electoral Commission deals openly and on equal terms with each of the political parties to enhance transparency."
- "State authorities should remain neutral in dealing with the process of establishment, registration (where applied) and activities of political parties and refrain from any measures that could privilege some political forces and discriminate others. All political parties should be given equal opportunities to participate in elections."
- "…Provide such political parties and organizations with the necessary legal guarantees to enable them to compete with each other on a basis of equal treatment before the law and by the authorities."
- "All political parties and candidates must be able to compete in elections with each other on the basis of equal treatment before the law. In addition, the law and official policies should create a level playing field for all political parties and candidates involved in the electoral processes."
- "The legal framework should ensure that all political parties are able to compete with each other on the basis of equal treatment before the law."
- "In summary, the commitments require states to: respect the right to establish political parties, and ensure that the parties can compete on the basis of equal treatment before the law and the authorities."
- "All candidates, parties and political organizations that wish to run for office should be able to do and to compete on the basis of equal treatment under the law and by the authorities."
- "All contestants should have an equal period of time in which to campaign."
- "All political forces and movements should be able to nominate and field candidates freely and on equal terms. Any arbitrary or discriminatory practices, for the purpose of disqualifying or undermining certain candidates or political forces contravene OSCE commitments."
- "In order to give effect to the right to be elected, the procedures for registration of candidacies must be nondiscriminatory and should also be straightforward. The grounds for rejection of a registration application should be based on objective criteria clearly stated in law."
- "The legal framework must provide clear guidance for qualifying parties, candidates, referenda and other initiatives for the ballot. The provisions may not be discriminatory, overly burdensome or unduly restrictive, though they should ensure that only qualified parties, candidates and appropriately worded referenda and initiatives appear on the ballot."
- "The effective implementation of the right and the opportunity to stand for elective office ensures that persons entitled to vote have a free choice of candidates. Any restrictions on the right to stand for election, such as minimum age, must be justifiable on objective and reasonable criteria. Persons who are otherwise eligible to stand for election should not be excluded by unreasonable or discriminatory requirements such as education, residence or descent, or by reason of political affiliation. No person should suffer discrimination or disadvantage of any kind because of that person's candidacy. States parties should indicate and explain the legislative provisions which exclude any group or category of persons from elective office."
- "In this sense, it would not be reasonable to have different rules (deadlines, definition of irregularities, procedures, sanctions…) for partisan or non partisan actors, as they may exist for presenting partisan or non-partisan lists, for taking part in election management bodies, for having access to public media and for being able to benefit from public funding. For that reason, the final questions, especially those related to the procedures for complaining and lodging appeals (competent bodies and/or courts, legal framework, sanctions, etc.) possibly do not admit many differences depending on partisan organisation."
- "This freedom may also be undermined by the practice of refusing political parties or other associations representing national minorities permission to use available public facilities such as town halls."
- "Provisions concerning candidate qualifications must be clear and must not discriminate against women or particular racial and ethnic groups. Disqualification should be subject to independent review."
- "Unreasonable restrictions [on voter registration] include: race."
- "The provisions for registration of political parties must not be designed to exclude political competitors, or make it difficult for minorities to organize and nominate their preferred candidates."
- "It is however required that that citizenship be defined in law respecting the right to non-discrimination; that is no distinctions based on race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status."
- "The individual rights to participate in public life should be extended to all persons regardless of ethnic or national origin, language or religion."
- "There should be no restrictions on candidates for reasons such as race, sex, religion, political affiliation, ethnic origin, or economic status."