CDL-AD(2020)025 -2- Table of Contents I. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 3 II. General remarks ........................................................................................................... 4 III. International instruments and case-law ......................................................................... 6 A. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ................................................... 6 B. European Convention on Human Rights.................................................................... 6 C. Code of good practice in electoral matters ................................................................. 7 D. OSCE 1990 Copenhagen Document and 1991 Moscow Document .......................... 8 IV. Competent bodies ..................................................................................................... 8 A. International standards .............................................................................................. 8 B. Competent bodies in first instance and on appeal (second or third instance) ............. 9 a. Competent bodies regarding voter registration and voter lists’ corrections .............. 10 b. Competent bodies regarding candidate registration ................................................. 11 c. Competent bodies regarding voting and counting/tabulation procedures ................. 12 d. Competent bodies regarding election results ........................................................... 13 C. Other procedural issues concerning competent bodies ........................................... 14 V. Grounds for complaints and decisions, actions or inactions open to challenge ............ 15 A. Types of complaints, challenged decisions, actions or inactions .............................. 15 B. Who are the authors of electoral violations? ............................................................ 17 VI. Persons entitled to lodge complaints – Standing ..................................................... 18 A. International standards ............................................................................................ 18 B. Domestic situations ................................................................................................. 18 VII. Time limits ............................................................................................................... 22 A. International standards ............................................................................................ 22 B. Time limits for lodging complaints and appeals........................................................ 22 C. Time limits for adjudicating complaints and appeals ................................................ 25 VIII. Other procedural issues .......................................................................................... 28 A. Right to a fair trial and effectiveness of election dispute resolution systems ............ 28 B. Transparency of election dispute resolution systems ............................................... 30 C. Reasoning of decisions on electoral complaints and appeals .................................. 31 D. Right to submit evidence and burden of proof.......................................................... 32 IX. Decision-making power ........................................................................................... 32 A. International standards ............................................................................................ 32 B. Authority of the appeal body on the cancellation of election results ......................... 33 X. Conclusions................................................................................................................. 34 XI. Annex 1 – Sources quoted in the report................................................................... 36 XII. Annex 2 – Selection of relevant case-law of the European Court of Human Rights on election dispute resolution ................................................................................................... 44

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