Guidelines for Understanding, Adjudicating, and Resolving Disputes in Elections litical parties should make efforts to mobilize and train voters who will in turn inform the wider public about the complaint system. Such trainings on the electoral complaints process by parties could be part of a general program on voter education, and conflict prevention and resolution tools, for example. In Timor-Leste, IFES’ program objective was to resolve and prevent conflicts by improving electoral complaint adjudication in combination with election violence monitoring. IFES educated political parties and candidates about the contents and potential problems in the election laws passed in December 2006. Moreover, IFES trained and gave briefing materials to political parties and candidates on the election complaints process.273 As a result, the parties and candidates were better equipped to disseminate relevant information to the general public. C. Actors with a Technical Role: Electoral Officials, Lawyers and Arbiters To provide an effective remedy in case of an electoral irregularity, all the actors involved in the process of complaints adjudication should understand the electoral complaint adjudication process and their roles within it. Complaint adjudication processes vary among countries as to the role or extent of involvement of the judiciary, of the election commission or of separate complaints adjudication entities. All the personnel that work in the organization and the conduct of an election, including regional or provincial staff, the investigation team and polling station workers, should be educated about the complaint process. Moreover, the lawyers are also important actors in the adjudication of a complaint. They should fully understand the law and the procedural rules and they should clearly explain the process to their client. Whether the adjudication entity is judicial or not, arbiters and judges should also be well versed in how to apply and interpret the relevant laws in the matter in dispute. Electoral officials should receive standardized training on complaints adjudication at all levels of the election administration.274 Some staff 273 274 IFES Timor-Leste Report, supra note 135, at 27. Venice Commission Code, supra note 44, at 28; Declaration on Elections, supra note 54, art. 4, § 6 (“[B]allot counting is undertaken by trained personnel, subject to monitoring and/ or impartial verification.”). 84