himself or herself to be prejudiced by it. This is part of the fundamental human right of access to justice provided for in several international human rights instruments. The objective is to ensure that no electoral action or decision escapes review regardless of whether it occurs in the pre-electoral, electoral or post-electoral period. Chapter 7 of this Handbook examines this in more detail. 51. An EDRS needs to provide mechanisms to ensure that all electoral actions and decisions carried out in the different periods of the electoral cycle are in keeping with the law. This is especially important where the electoral laws provide the entities in charge of the EDRS with mandates that do not authorize them to continue operating beyond the electoral period. In such cases, other organs must be entrusted with resolving the possible challenges raised during the pre-electoral and post-electoral periods. It might also be considered good practice to entrust EDR to permanent and independent bodies (see chapter 6). 52. There is a strong public interest in the certainty of electoral proceedings and results. In this regard, every EDRS should adopt the principle that all acts and decisions of the electoral authority that have not been challenged in a timely fashion within a period specified in the electoral law become irrevocable. This procedural feature makes it possible to wrap up each successive stage of the election as a clear and firm basis for the next, and to decide the outcome of the election in a consolidated manner. It would make it impossible to call into question the validity of a particular electoral action or decision at a later stage. For example, in several countries it is not legally permissible for an irregularity committed during the election campaign to be raised during the stage of announcing the results as grounds for annulling the election, if it has not already been challenged by the person or party affected during the pre-election stage. It is important to note that this principle only operates when the alleged irregularity committed at an earlier stage was susceptible to challenge at that moment. If no means of challenge is provided for at the earlier stage, there would be grounds for considering it proper to challenge it later. 53. Once started, an electoral process cannot, in general, be halted, because timely renewal of the representative organs of government depends on it. As a result, another common principle of an electoral dispute resolution system is that the filing of a challenge does not suspend the validity of the action challenged. Thus, until the challenge is resolved the action or decision will continue to have effect. In addition, in order to avoid abuse it is a healthy practice to provide for short timescales for resolving any challenges that have been filed (see chapter 7). 20