Principle 3: Effective Investigation the hiring of short-term staff is required, however, the need to invest in and implement highly effective training and oversight is of the utmost importance. As the American Bar Association’s Standards for Prosecutorial Investigation suggest, investigative bodies should appoint supervisors with appropriate experience; strong commitment to integrity, justice, and ethics; and capacity for managing a corps of investigators and support staff.325 State legal frameworks often provide the criteria for election commissions as well as for adjudicative and investigative bodies. Elections Canada requires special investigator candidates: to have formal training in a police academy or equivalent; to have served in a Canadian police or security agency; to have a strong background in criminal investigation, evidence collection, and court procedures; to have extensive knowledge of applicable Canadian laws; to have investigative experience in other fields, depending on demonstrated experience and ability; and to have a reputation for professional and personal integrity.326 Within the guideline parameters for criminal prosecution, the United Nations urges that “selection criteria…embody safeguards against appointments based on partiality or prejudice, excluding any discrimination against a person on the grounds of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, social or ethnic origin, property, birth, economic or other status, except that it shall not be considered discriminatory to require a candidate for prosecutorial office to be a national of the state concerned.”327 This principle of non-discrimination should be extended to developing a professional investigative body in order to promote accessibility and integrity of institutional processes. Equipped with necessary policies and procedures, investigative bodies should be fully functional well in advance of an electoral cycle. Otherwise, the body cannot respond to the demands of the electoral process and may be vulnerable to errors. During both the 2009 and 2010 election cycles in Afghanistan, for example, the ECC was unprepared for the sheer number of fraud cases and other irregularities under investigation. Established just 120 days prior to each election, the ECC struggled to devise new procedural frameworks as well as to hire and train a new corps of professional staff within the short 325 See Standards for Prosecutorial Investigations, supra note 82, § 2.15(c). 326 Canadian Investigators’ Manual Ch. 2, supra note 322, at 2. 327 U.N. Guidelines on the Role of Prosecutors, supra note 320, § 2(a). 101