Election Investigations Guidebook investigative body’s enacting legislation and the rules and regulations that govern its operations should define the scope of investigators’ work and serve to reinforce the credibility of and to promote the public confidence in the investigative process. This level of detail enables the investigative body to plan the complex operations of investigating electoral disputes.322 Several states incorporate competence standards for investigators into their policy frameworks, including expectations on the ability to prepare for an investigation, to collect evidence and establish the factual history of electoral claims, and to report findings. Bhutan’s electoral rules and regulations, for instance, stipulate that investigators should be able to establish the truth of a claim in a lawful manner and must possess “fair knowledge on all aspects, such as, the cause of action, place of occurrence of the event, the identity and location of the witnesses, the date and time of the event as these are crucial to determine the course of the investigation.”323 In Canada, investigators are expected to use “initiative, investigative experience and professional skills in a thorough methodological preparation of their work.”324 By enumerating the investigator competence criteria, an investigative body sets the foundation for efficient and thorough investigations. Standards of competency for an investigative body can be actualized through appropriate recruitment, training, and professional development initiatives. Recruitment To establish credibility of the investigative process, an investigative body’s enacting legislation, as well as the rules and regulations that govern its operations, should define the technical and professional criteria for the recruitment of investigators. Appropriate recruitment criteria and processes reinforce the competence and professionalism of election investigators. However, the temporary nature of some election investigative bodies may preclude advance recruitment, making it more difficult to find competent and available staff for a limited election timeframe. Thus, criteria should reflect the structure of the institution—if an investigative body is temporary, it may be necessary to relax criteria (within reason) in order to rapidly recruit short-term staff. When 322 Orozco-Henríquez et al., supra note 101, at 97–99. 323 Bhutan Election Dispute Settlement Manual, supra note 27, ¶ 6.1. 324 Canadian Investigators’ Manual Ch. 5, supra note 85, at 4. 100