Summary
There should be impartial scrutiny of the counting process and access to judicial review.
Obligations
Election Parts
Quotes
- Adequate arrangements shall be made to hear and dispose of all petitions relating to the conduct of elections and announcement of results.
- State Parties re-affirm their commitment to regularly holding transparent, free and fair elections in accordance with the Union’s Declaration on the Principles Governing Democratic Elections in Africa. To this end, State Parties shall: 2. Establish and strengthen national mechanisms that redress election related disputes in a timely manner.
- There should be independent scrutiny of the voting and counting process and access to judicial review or other equivalent process so that electors have confidence in the security of the ballot and the counting of the votes.
- Both the preliminary and the final results should be subject to challenges. Therefore the electoral law should differentiate between the procedures, deadlines and time-limits applicable to each phase.
- Where lower level electoral bodies are mandated to publish the preliminary results of the election, they should not be entitled to declare the results void but should be able to make non-binding recommendations to that purpose to the highest electoral body.
- Re-count procedures should be available in case of questionable results.