7/8/2020 Mexico 9768, 9780 and 9828 42. On the other hand, the observance of the abovementioned rights and freedoms requires a juridical and institutional order in which the laws are above the will of the leaders and in which there is control by some institutions over others, to preserve the purity of the expression of the popular will–the rule of law. 43. The Commission has referred in numerous opportunities to the exercise of political rights within the framework of representative democracy and in its relationship with the other basic rights of human beings. Said statements have never been attacked by any of the member states of the Organization, and the General Assembly, acknowledging the recommendations and observations of the Commission, has restated on numerous occasions the need to hold authentic and free elections, establishing a direct link between this electoral mechanism and the system of representative democracy which the basic instruments of the Organization consider as the basis of continental solidarity and as the system which best protects human rights. 44. In short, the exercise of political rights is an essential element of representative democracy, which also presupposes the observance of other human rights. Furthermore, the protection of those civil and political rights, within the framework of representative democracy, also implies the existence of an institutional control of acts of the branches of government, as well as supremacy of the law. 45. Since popular will is the basis for the authority of government, according to the terms of the Universal Declaration, it is consistent with a method for naming public officials through elections. Both the Universal declaration and the American Declaration, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the American Convention on Human Rights coincide in that elections must have certain specific characteristics: they must be “authentic” (“genuine” in the American Declaration), “periodic,” “universal” and be executed in a manner that preserves the freedom of expression of the will of the voter. 36. Bearing in mind the characteristics of the allegations contained in the cases under review, the presentation that follows will only refer to the characteristics of “authenticity” which elections must have since the other characteristics are not in question in these cases. Therefore an analysis will be made of the authenticity of the elections, according to pronouncements of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights with regard to specific situations. 4.c. Authenticity of the elections 47. The act of electing representatives must be “authentic” in the sense stipulated by the American Convention, implying that there must be some consistency between the will of the voters and the result of the election. In the negative sense, the characteristic implies an absence of coercion which distorts the will of the citizens. 48. The different pronouncements which the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has made on the subject, and which will be presented below, show that the authenticity of the elections covers two different categories of phenomena: on one hand, those referring to the general conditions in which the electoral process is carried out and, on the other hand, phenomena linked to the legal and institutional system that organizes elections and which implements activities linked to the electoral act, that is everything related in an immediate and direct way to the casting of the vote. i. General conditions of the electoral process 49. As to the general conditions in which the electoral contest takes place, from the concrete situations considered by the Commission, we can deduce that they must allow the different political groups to participate in the electoral process under equal conditions, that is, that they all have similar basic conditions for conducting their campaign. In negative terms, this characteristic implies an absence of direct coercion of undue advantages for one of the participants in the electoral contest. Some texts prepared by the Inter-American Commission in regard to the matter are presented below. cidh.org/annualrep/89.90eng/Mexico9768.htm 8/17