Elections on Trial: The Effective Management of Election Disputes and Violations
representation…and relaxing requirements that filings be typed (as long as they are legible)...”89 These
measures are particularly important in election cases, which involve fundamental political rights, and to
ensure equal access to the EDR body for all types of electoral complainants.
The emergence of new methods of case management are a result of the common challenge of delays in
legal proceedings of all types, and this is not an issue unique to electoral disputes, nor to the countries
examined in this paper. However, as already discussed, the timeliness of legal proceedings is of unique
importance in election cases. These challenges are illuminated across the six countries examined, with
some countries facing delays in the resolution of cases well beyond legal time limits, while in other
countries deadlines for filing and resolving cases are so short as to make proper investigation and
deliberation of legitimate complaints impossible. A positive revelation across the six countries is an
emerging interest in case management systems and platforms that assist with the efficient
administration of justice, although this is being achieved with varying levels of success.
In Tunisia, interlocutors have advised that each court manages its time to ensure that election cases are
resolved within the statutory time limit. Strategies include the establishment of a registry office
dedicated to the receipt of electoral disputes, suspending the processing of non-electoral disputes while
electoral disputes are being resolved, and grouping similar complaints together into a single case.90 To
save time, the tribunal may also order oral pleadings for disputes relating to candidacy during legislative
elections91 and voter registration appeals.92 In addition, the case management database used in Tunisia
facilitates the automatic production of documents such as party summons and administrative forms,
which are then sent directly to the president of the Tribunal, chambers and magistrates adjudicating the
case, reportedly improving efficiency in case processing.
In Mexico, the Tribunal hears thousands of cases in any given year within a condensed timeframe. The
screening, sorting, tracking and archiving of cases, as well as the gathering and publication of statistics
on the work and rulings of the Tribunal, falls to the General Secretariat of Agreements (SGA). The SGA
administers the case management software platform used by the Tribunal, and this platform is a tool to
facilitate the timely processing of cases as it tracks compliance with all filing deadlines outlined in the
law. Every step of a case that has set windows of time for compliance is logged in the system, including
the date and exact time when a complaint is registered, since some steps must be completed in as little
time as 24 hours. Elements of the case management process that have defined time limits are flagged
using a traffic light system that highlights cases in green, yellow or red.93 However, there are different
89
Robert Yegge, “Divorce Litigants Without Lawyers: This Crisis for Bench and Bar Needs Answers Now,” Judges’
Journal 33, no. 2 (spring 1994): 8, at 10-13.
90
During the 2014 elections in Tunisia, the Administrative Tribunal also compiled like cases into one ruling where
the objects of the complaint and arguments were the same. Narjess Tahar, Study of the Case Law on Electoral
Disputes Relating to Presidential and Legislative Election Results of 2014 35 (2016).
91
Law n° 2014-16, art. 28.
92
Law n° 2014-16, art. 18.
93
Cases that are not in immediate danger of exceeding time limits are highlighted in green, those that are about to
pass a deadline are highlighted in yellow and those that have missed a deadline are in red.
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