Guidelines for Understanding, Adjudicating, and Resolving Disputes in Elections The 2005 parliamentary and provincial council elections in Afghanistan provide us with an example of electoral complaint processes in a postconflict country. The Election Complaints Commission (ECC) dismissed many claims on the grounds that they did not fall into the category of electoral offenses or were not well-documented. These dismissals indicate a lack of information provided to the general public concerning the complaints process. Consequently, the International Crisis Group recommended that the ECC should “create a more open complaints process by conducting a high-profile public awareness campaign and carrying out training for civil society organizations to aid understanding of the grounds for submissions and the required standards of proof.”29 The ECC responded before the 2009 presidential elections by: releasing a document describing the complaints management system; making available its rules of procedure, the code of conduct adopted by the commissioners, and the complaints application form on its website; and explaining to Afghan citizens where they should file their claims and the process through which the claim goes once it is filed.30 However, in cases such as Afghanistan the severe nature and high volume of complaints can make it difficult to provide timely information on the status of a complaint. Moreover, ensuring that the public has access to the information necessary to understand the complaint adjudication process requires resources that are not always available to electoral authorities.31 C. Transparency Transparency in the electoral complaint adjudication system and process will build public confidence and thus will legitimize the outcomes of the complaints. To ensure the effectiveness of the right to remedy, voters, political parties, candidates and the media must know which body has jurisdiction to handle electoral challenges and complaints, how it is consti International Crisis Group, Asia Report No. 171, Afghanistan's Election Challenges, at ii (2009) [hereinafter Afghanistan Challenges], available at http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/ regions/asia/south-asia/afghanistan/171-afghanistans-election-challenges.aspx. 30 Electoral Complaints Commission, Narrative Description of the Complaints Management System 1 (2009) (“Developing and implementing an effective and transparent complaints management system may be one of the single most important [steps] in determining whether a country’s election is seen as free, fair and legitimate by a country’s electorate.”). 31 Id. at 3-5. Indeed, after the Afghan elections, NDI stressed the “lack of timely information about the status of complaints fed a general dissatisfaction and mistrust about the process and its effectiveness.” NDI, Preliminary Statement of the NDI Election Observer Delegation to Afghanistan’s 2009 PresIdential and Provincial Council Elections 9 (Aug. 22, 2009), available at http://www.ndi.org/files/Afghanistan_EOM_Preliminary_Statement.pdf. 29 18