Selection of party leaders and candidates for elective office 448. Although political parties are often left to regulate the democratic procedures for selecting their own leaders or candidates for elective office in the exercise of their right to organize themselves, in many cases certain general rules by which they must abide in their statutes and specific actions are established by law. Among the general conditions laid down by law, intervention by the EMB is sometimes provided for in the internal party procedures for choosing leaders or candidates. Sometimes the law may provide only for the possibility of challenging actions and decisions before the EDRB. 449. Thus, for example, as regards parties’ own governing bodies, the legislature often spells out the minimum internal procedures that each political party must have, or the need for these to exist at the national, state or provincial or departmental, and possibly municipal levels. 450. Exceptionally, the legislature may prescribe how some of these organs are to be constituted, the period of the term in office and limits on re-election; and impose an obligation to register the governing body with the EMB as well as an obligation to indicate, in parties’ internal statutes, the grounds and procedures for recall or democratic oversight of leaders. However, the level of detail is often not very specific. The law in several countries provides that political party leaders and candidates for elective office must be selected by means of periodic elections (as in Argentina, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama and Uruguay). It does not, however, always specify whether elections must be direct or indirect, or indeed establish the need for a free and secret ballot, or the direct, free, equal and secret vote of party members through either internal or primary elections. 451. In order to reduce de facto inequalities in practice, the law in some countries emphasizes equal opportunity for men and women to join party organs and stand for elective office, and proscribes any form of discrimination (as in Costa Rica and Ecuador). It may establish a quota either for women at all levels of a party’s management and in the candidacies for representative positions, or only in respect of candidacies for elective office (as in Armenia, Burkina Faso, Indonesia, Panama and Paraguay). Some electoral laws provide for a system of proportional representation for distributing political party seats in the legislature in order to encourage the participation of different interests or minorities in the nomination of candidates for elective office (as in Honduras and Paraguay). 153 7. Basic elements of EDR systems 447. Any dispute over the constitutionality or legality of internal party statutes or any amendment to them is generally within the jurisdiction of the EDRB (as in Costa Rica, Mexico and Panama). In those countries where its decisions are not final and therefore subject to appeal, they subsequently fall under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court or Constitutional Court.