Guidelines for Understanding, Adjudicating, and Resolving Disputes in Elections aged the Central Election Commission to develop a manual that includes the electoral commissioners’ duties in light of the general rules to adjudicate complaints, the handling of Election Day complaints at PECs, and the adjudication of complaints at DECs.280 Training of key actors in the electoral complaint adjudication process should obviously include arbiters, judges and lawyers. In East Timor in 2007, the credibility of the complaints process was assisted by six Timorese lawyers that IFES hired, paid and trained as complaints officers and who worked to assess complaints and make recommendations to the Commission. 281 IFES has also implemented important projects in Nigeria and the Philippines to effectively train judges. Additionally, in Georgia, IFES trained lawyers from 18 political parties and chairmen and lawyers from 73 District Election Commissions. This training covered filing complaints, use of administrative resources, and protocol on administrative violations. It should also be mentioned that the Mexican Electoral Tribunal provides technical assistance to other courts or to complaints adjudication entities abroad regarding the training of their arbiters.282 D. The Media The media is also an important component of the organization and conduct of an election. The media has a responsibility to cover the topic of election complaints accurately, and a civic obligation to report violations or problems that may arise from an election. The media can “shine its own spotlight on the election process and expose corruption or other illegal activities.”283 The media also has a responsibility to understand and abide by regulations governing the media’s role in an election process (e.g. allocation of airtime, avoiding inaccurate or biased stories), in order to avoid fuelling conflicts or becoming the object of an election complaint. Id. at 1, 7 (describing content of training material, including Ukrainian legislation, handbook, description of election commissioner duties, general rules for adjudicating complaints and appeals, maintaining voters’ lists, preparing for polling, counting votes, and more). 281 IFES Timor-Leste Report, supra note 135, at 25; see also Schramm et al., supra note 2, at 11-13. 282 International Activities 2008-2009, Instituto Federal Electoral, http://www.ife.org.mx/portal/ site/ifev2/International_Activity_2008_2009/#2 (last visited Jan. 10, 2011). 283 IMPACS, Media + Election: An Election Handbook Report 12 (2004) [hereinafter IMPACS Report]. 280 86

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