Summary
The voter registration process should promote broad participation and not inhibit the participation of eligible voters.
Obligations
Election Parts
Issues
Criteria
- There was adequate time for the voter registration process, including exhibition of preliminary lists and opportunities for challenges and corrections
- Limitations on universal suffrage imposed during the voter registration process were reasonable and objective
- Voter registration promoted broad participation, and there were no barriers to participation by otherwise qualified eligible voters
- Voter registration promoted universal suffrage
Quotes
- In particular, a deficient electoral roll would affect a priori voters’ rights, which, admittedly, is not the issue in the instant case. However, the effectiveness of the right to stand for election is undoubtedly contingent upon the fair exercise of the right to vote. Thus, if an electoral roll omits to include some voters and/or allows the multi-registration of others, such mismanagement would not only undermine voters’ interests but could also diminish the candidates’ chances to stand equally and fairly for election. The Court thus finds that a sufficiently close causal link exists between the applicant party’s right to stand in the repeat parliamentary election of 28 March 2004 and its complaint about the voter registration system prevailing at that time.
- Where registration of voters is required, it should be facilitated and obstacles to such registration should not be imposed.
- Procedures should accommodate broad participation and should not crate unnecessary technical barriers to participation by otherwise qualified persons. For instance, advance registration should be allowed for those who will reach the minimum voting age by election day, but after the close of registration.
- All citizens of the country should have the right to…be registered as voters on equal terms.
- The registration system should be designed to enable every eligible voter to cast a ballot.
- The voter registration process should promote broad participation and should not inhibit the participation of eligible voters… Cost effective voter identification protocols should be established to enable the maximum possible inclusion of eligible voters, while minimizing multiple or illegal voter registration.
- The election system must provide a mechanism for registering voters. The right to vote cannot be secured if it is not possible to determine efficiently who is eligible and therefore allowed to vote in an election.
- The proper establishment and maintenance of electoral registers is vital in implementing and guaranteeing universal suffrage. In practice, it is a pre-condition for enabling voters to use their right to vote. Voter registration, however, is one of the most complex, controversial and often least successful parts of electoral administration in emerging and new democracies, especially in post-conflict situations with a large number of refugees and internally displaced persons.
- Universal suffrage requires that the broadest reasonable pool of voters is guaranteed participatory rights.
- The right to vote is violated if the legal framework makes it difficult for a person to register to vote, as normally a person who is not registered cannot legally vote.
- In similar vein, if the procedure for registering as an external elector has to be carried out at an embassy or consulate, the extent and geographical distribution of the country’s network of diplomatic missions overseas and the distance between the diplomatic missions and the regions or zones where the potential electorate resides and/or works could have a negative influence on the coverage of the mechanism for external voting.
- Every elector has the opportunity to record his or her vote freely and without fear; ensuring that there are no abnormal limitations upon the franchise or obstacles to registration or to voting.