Summary
Elections must be held by equal suffrage.
Obligations
Election Parts
Issues
Criteria
- Each vote was of equal weight
- Equal suffrage was respected throughout the electoral process, including vote counting, consistent with the concept of one person, one vote
- Safeguards were put in place to ensure that there existed no opportunity to falsify or substitute ballots, including during the vote counting and tabulation process
- The voter list was accurate and up-to-date
- Procedures did not diminish the value of the votes of particular individuals, groups, or geographic areas
Quotes
- In compliance with the fundamental obligations laid down in article 2 of this Convention, States Parties undertake to prohibit and to eliminate racial discrimination in all its forms and to guarantee the right of everyone, without distinction as to race, color, or national or ethnic origin, to equality before the law, notably in the enjoyment of the following rights: (c) Political rights, in particular the right to participate in elections-to vote and to stand for election-on the basis of universal and equal suffrage, to take part in the Government as well as in the conduct of public affairs at any level and to have equal access to public service.
- Everyone shall have the right and opportunity and in the state of which he is a citizen (b) to vote and to be elected at elections held on the basis of universal and equal suffrage by secret ballot, that guarantees the free expression of the will of the voters.
- Every citizen shall enjoy the following rights: b. to vote and to be elected in genuine periodic elections, which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and by secret ballot that guarantees the free expression of the will of the voters.
- [E]very citizen has one vote or equal number of votes with other citizens, and they have the right to exercise on the equal basis with other citizens their voting right, and their vote(s) has (have) the same weight as votes of other voters, and the weight of vote (votes) of the voter should not be affected by the election system applied in the state.
- To vote and 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.
- Regarding whether the measure was adapted to achieving the legitimate objective sought, based on the above the Court finds that, in the instant case, the exclusivity of nomination by political parties to elected office at the federal level is an appropriate measure to produce the legitimate result sought of organizing the electoral processes efficiently in order to hold genuine periodic elections, by universal and equal suffrage and by secret vote that guarantee the free expression of the will of the voters, as established by the American Convention.
- The principle of one person, one vote must apply, and within the framework of each State's electoral system, the vote of one elector should be equal to the vote of another.
- The right and opportunity to vote and to be elected embodied in Article 23(1)(b) of the American Convention is exercised regularly in genuine periodic elections by universal and equal suffrage and by secret ballot that guarantees the free expression of the will of the voters. Over and above these characteristics of the electoral process (genuine periodic elections) and of the principles of the suffrage (universal, equal, secret, that reflect the free expression of the will of the people), the American Convention does not establish a specific mechanism or a particular electoral system by which the right to vote and to be elected must be exercised (infra para. 197). The Convention merely establishes certain standards within which the States legitimately may and must regulate political rights, provided that these regulations comply with the requirements of legality, are designed to fulfill a legitimate purpose, and are necessary and proportionate; that is, they are reasonable according to the principles of representative democracy.
- We, Ministers and Heads of Delegation of the States and Governments of Countries using French as a common language, (…) 4 - Undertake the following commitments: (…) B. For the holding of free, fair and transparent elections (...) 9. To guarantee the full participation of citizens in the vote, as well as equal treatment of candidates during the entire electoral process.
- To ensure that the will of the people serves as the basis of the authority of government, the participating States will: (7.3) guarantee universal and equal suffrage to adult citizens.
- The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
- [Consider] signing and ratifying or acceding to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other core international human rights treaties.
- Tak[e] all necessary measures to eliminate laws, regulations and practices that discriminate, directly or indirectly, against citizens in their right to participate in public affairs on grounds of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status, or on the basis of disability.
- Every citizen has the right to vote in periodic and genuine elections, which should be by universal and equal suffrage and by secret ballot, guaranteeing the free expression of the will of the electors, in accordance with national law.
- We, Ministers and Heads of Delegation of the States and Governments of Countries using French as a common language, (…) 4 - Undertake the following commitments: (…) B. For the holding of free, fair and transparent elections (...) 9. To guarantee the full participation of citizens in the vote, as well as equal treatment of candidates during the entire electoral process.
- Equality in voting rights requires each voter to be normally entitled to one vote, and to one vote only. Multiple voting, which is still a common irregularity in the new democracies, is obviously prohibited – both if it means a voter votes more than once in the same place and if it enables a voter to vote simultaneously in several different places, such as his or her place of current residence and place of former residence.
- Special rules providing for an exception to the normal vote-counting rules, in a proportional way, in the case of a referendum concerning the situation of national minorities do not, in principle, run counter to equal suffrage.
- [E]ach voter has in principle one vote; where the electoral system provides voters with more than one vote, each voter has the same number of votes.
- Each voter has in principle one vote; where the electoral system provides voters with more than one vote (for example, where there are alternatives), each voter has the same number of votes.
- Single-member ballot: there is where there is just one seat to be filled per constituency and each elector has only one vote. It is therefore applicable only in plurality/majority or hybrid systems.
- In some electoral systems, the elector nonetheless has more than one vote. In, for example, a system that allows split voting (voting for candidates chosen from more than one list), the elector may have one vote per seat to be filled; another possibility is when one vote is cast in a small constituency and another in a larger constituency, as is often the case in systems combining single-member constituencies and proportional representation at the national or regional level.In this case, equal voting rights mean that all electors should have the same number of votes.
- The single non-transferable vote: irrespective of the number of seats to be filled, each elector has only one vote. Candidates receiving the most votes are elected in proportion to the number of seats to be filled. This system is regarded as being the “fairest” of the nonproportional methods, since it enables a high degree of proportionality to be achieved between the votes cast and the number of seats.
- Every voter is entitled to exercise his or her right equally with others and to have his or her vote accorded equivalent weight to that of others.