CDL-AD(2020)025 -4- 6. The present report was approved by the Council for Democratic Elections at its 68th meeting which was held online on 15 June 2020 and adopted by the Venice Commission at its 124th Plenary Session held online on 8-9 October 2020. II. General remarks 7. Electoral processes in Europe and beyond include a complex series of successive stages, requiring the involvement of numerous actors, primarily voters, candidates and electoral management bodies. Political parties, courts and other relevant public authorities are also indispensable stakeholders of electoral processes. 8. Electoral disputes cannot be limited to complaints on election day or on election results, which are often the most visible disputes of an electoral process. They must also address any types of disputes that may arise in the course of an electoral process. This means that electoral disputes can derive from the various phases of an electoral process, broadly understood. This includes mainly the following phases: when relevant boundary delimitation, procurements, voter and candidate registration (de-registration or refusal of registration as well); the official period of the electoral campaign; election day itself (voting, closing and counting operations); results (their tabulation, transmission, issuance). Election dispute resolution relates more generally to challenges against decisions issued by administrations, public agencies and any relevant electoral stakeholder, especially election commissions at all levels of an election administration. 9. The complexity inherent to electoral processes as well as the involvement of political actors and politically sensitive issues inevitably lead to disputes. Such disputes are a natural part of a lively domestic political life, which in turn is a natural part of a lively pluralistic system. The adjudication of electoral disputes – also called election dispute resolution systems – is therefore a crucial element of an effective and functional electoral governance so as to ensure confidence in electoral processes. The issue is regularly addressed by electoral opinions of the Venice Commission and the OSCE/ODIHR as well as by international observers in their election observation missions’ reports, especially reports from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe8 and of the OSCE/ODIHR.9 Additionally, election dispute resolution systems have been subject to a number of judgments and decisions by the European Court of Human Rights under Article 3 of Protocol No. 1.10 In general terms, it has been observed that there have been structural problems while dealing with electoral disputes both in law and in practice in a number of Venice Commission’s member States.11 10. As the Venice Commission noted in the Report on electoral law and electoral administration in Europe,12 in a number of cases, the procedures for dealing with complaints and appeals are not clearly defined or are very complicated, depending on the domestic legal situations observed. International observers’ reports repeatedly characterise domestic electoral laws and other relevant laws (including procedural laws and codes) relating to complaints and appeals’ procedures as incomplete, ambiguous, confusing or too complex. This leads to an inconsistent interpretation and application of the electoral law, especially regarding the admissibility of complaints and decision-making at different levels. Moreover, All Parliamentary Assembly’s election observation reports are available here. All OSCE/ODIHR election observation reports are available here. 10 See here the Guide on Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 “Right to free elections”. See also here the dedicated fact sheet of the European Court of Human Rights on the right to free elections. 11 The present report refers to a number of reports of election observation missions, which are, in addition to electoral opinions from the Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR, the sources where such structural problems have been mentioned. 12 See 2006 Report on Electoral Law and Electoral Administration in Europe – Synthesis study on recurrent challenges and problematic issues, para. 169. 8 9