Guidelines for Understanding, Adjudicating, and Resolving Disputes in Elections processes. If the major parties fail to attend, the event can be perceived to be one planned for the “opposition.” Party representatives who do attend may not always be those who will actually lead the party’s efforts relative to the filing of complaints. iv. Differing initial competencies A separate challenge arises when the political party members attending the training program have differing initial competencies at the commencement of training. Some attending party members may be well versed in the nation’s laws pertaining to complaints while others are relying on the training itself to establish a foundational basis. This scenario places the trainer in the position of relaying information that may seem redundant and superfluous to some attendees while simultaneously being essential to others. Providing a broad outline of the complaints adjudication process in the form of a handout will help guide less-informed party members along. Basic information can be gleaned from the document, as it will serve to answer questions that do not require deep expertise. The in- formation orally presented throughout the training session will add more substance to this foundational layer. v. Ancillary problems It is assumed that by the end of training attendees will be well versed in the proper procedure to challenge election results. A concern that is not often raised is that training itself gives party members the tools needed, and possibly the impetus, to delay or discredit election results with unnecessary challenges. This de facto self-fulfilling prophecy does not lend itself to being accurately measured or quantified, but it may very well take place on occasion. Instilling in attendees the importance of integrity and the necessity to follow the will of the voters is the only deterrence for this potential problem, as the only alternative is to discontinue training political parties how to perform an important function. Penalties assessed against parties challenging the vote in bad faith would require a subjective determination that could lead to an unwanted chilling effect, wherein parties with a basis for a claim might fail to follow through with it out of fear of potential economic repercussions. Thus, focusing on the gravity of the function political parties perform is the best deterrence for these ancillary problems. 150

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