Election Investigations Guidebook the responsibility to thoroughly analyze all available information.217 Then, the “results and reasons for decisions” and the recommendations “must be formally adopted” and “issued in written form” to the appropriate authorities.218 According to the United Nations General Assembly, “concealing evidence and/or burying the findings” represents the “worst case scenario” for investigations.219 Instead, as the UNDP Investigation Guidelines makes clear, “[investigative] findings should follow an objective assessment of all information, including inculpatory and exculpatory evidence, gathered in the course of the investigation.”220 What exactly does a proper analysis of evidence entail? The European Court of Human Rights offers some guidance in Atakishi v. Azerbaijan. In that case, the Court held that the domestic authorities’ disqualification of an applicant’s candidacy “was based on irrelevant, insufficient, and inadequately examined evidence.”221 The domestic authorities relied on several accusatory statements to disqualify the applicant but these “were all very vaguely worded and essentially contained unsubstantiated allegations.”222 The Azerbaijani authorities, the Court admonished, “failed to verify the identities of the authors of these complaints, to seek more detailed information from them as to the specific alleged misconduct by the applicant, to corroborate that information with any additional evidence, or to hear any of the complainants in person and thus give the applicant an opportunity to defend himself against their allegations.”223 Moreover, they “failed to identify and seek to hear any witnesses of the alleged incident in order to verify the statements.”224 The Atakishi case suggests that, at a minimum, proper analysis of evidence requires good faith 217 See Uniform Guidelines 2009, supra note 25, ¶ 19. (“The Investigative Office should examine both inculpatory and exculpatory evidence.”). Inculpatory evidence is evidence that tends to show an individual’s involvement in an alleged act, or points toward guilt. Conversely, exculpatory evidence tends to show that an individual did not participate in the alleged act or points toward innocence. Atakishi v. Azerbaijan, App. No. 18469/06, Eur. Ct. H.R. ¶ 47 (2012). 218 OSCE Office of Democratic Insts. & Human Rights (ODIHR), Existing Commitments for Democratic Elections in OSCE Participating States ¶ 10.5 (Oct. 2003), http://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/13957. 219 Rep. of the Joint Inspection Unit, Investigations Function in the United Nations System, ¶ 35, U.N. Doc. A/67/140; GAOR, 67th Sess. (Jul. 13, 2012). 220 UNDP Investigation Guidelines 2012, supra note 6, ¶ 2. 221 Atakishi v. Azerbaijan, App. No. 18469/06 Eur. Ct. H.R., at 47 (2012). 222 Id. ¶ 44. 223 Id. 224 Id. ¶ 45. 78