Introduction 1. The importance and role of electoral justice 1. Electoral justice, in general terms, involves the means and mechanisms: • for ensuring that each action, procedure and decision related to the electoral process is in line with the law (the constitution, statute law, international instruments and treaties, and all other provisions); and • for protecting or restoring the enjoyment of electoral rights, giving people who believe their electoral rights have been violated the ability to make a complaint, get a hearing and receive an adjudication. 2. In this Handbook, the notion of electoral justice further encompasses the means and mechanisms for ensuring that electoral processes are not marred by irregularities, and for defending electoral rights. Electoral justice mechanisms include all the means in place for preventing electoral disputes, as well as the formal mechanisms for resolving them by institutional means and the informal mechanisms or alternative means for their resolution. Any irregularity in the electoral process may give rise to a dispute. Among the mechanisms for resolving electoral disputes, a distinction should be made between: a. those that provide a formal remedy or are corrective in nature, such as the means of bringing electoral challenges, which annul, modify or acknowledge the irregularity; b. those that are punitive in nature, which impose a penalty on the perpetrator, entity or person responsible for the irregularity, such as election-related administrative and criminal liabilities; and c. those alternative mechanisms for electoral dispute resolution which are voluntary for the parties in dispute and frequently informal. 1