Requirement to pay a fee or deposit to submit a complaint to the first-instance electoral disputeresolution body While many stakeholders argue that access to the EDR system should be free of charge, some countries require a charge in the form of a judicial bond, a deposit or a non-recoverable sum as a precondition for access to the EDR system. If the users of the electoral justice system are required to pay a specific fee, this should be set at a reasonable level that takes account of criteria such as necessity and proportionality (Orozco-Henríquez et al. 2010: paras 360–64). Fees should not become an obstacle to access to electoral justice. In some countries, a sum of money has to be deposited when submitting a complaint or a challenge, which is returned only in the event that the challenge is declared to have been well-founded. The research targeted the legal requirement to pay a fee or deposit as a condition for submitting an electoral complaint. Results show that in 75 countries (43 per cent) legislation does not prescribe a requirement to pay any fee or deposit for submitting election resultsrelated complaints (Figure 3.6), while 44 countries (25 per cent) do have fee or deposit requirements prescribed in the law. In almost onethird of countries the legislation does not contain any clear provisions regarding fees or deposits. The database also provides data on the level of fees or deposits in local currencies for those countries that require them. Figure 3.6. Requirement to pay a fee or deposit to the firstinstance electoral dispute-resolution body Not specified 31% Deposit (22 countries) Yes 26% Fee (10 countries) No 43% Both fee and deposit (12 countries) Notes: Data for 173 countries. Graph represents the data in EJD as of August 2015. 22