Chapter 2: Legal Frameworks for Effective Election Complaints Adjudication Systems Introduction A strong electoral structure must have the capacity to resolve complaints and disputes arising during elections through a fair, transparent and efficient process. Successful democracies recognize the need for such capacity by creating an adjudicative system for election complaints. Election complaints that are not properly and rapidly processed weaken a society’s dedication to both the rule of law and honest elections. Ongoing disputes create an environment of political mistrust and suspicion that can undermine the legitimacy of elections and of the elected government. The increasing number of new and developing democracies, and their intensely competitive political environments, has led to greater awareness of problems in the complaints adjudication arena of election management. Election authorities have generally become more competent in fulfilling their basic responsibilities for conducting elections. More complicated and difficult aspects of holding elections are now being addressed. Election laws are becoming more comprehensive, and global experiences in this area are now more easily shared. As presented in Chapter 1, international standards have been developed for evaluating the fairness and effectiveness of complaints adjudication systems. Discussion of election complaints adjudication has now moved beyond simply stating principles to a focus on practical considerations for effective implementation. Election complaints pose acute challenges for the election officials, courts and other bodies tasked with their resolution. These authorities rarely receive credit, and are often given blame, for trying to resolve hundreds or thousands of disputes and complaints in a short time period.1 Some disputes represent very significant matters that involve strong political sensitivities and carry serious potential consequences. Other complaints One example of this issue is the 2010 investigation of the Afghanistan Independent Election Commission (IEC) and the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) by the Afghan Office of the Attorney General. Following the IEC and ECC’s move to disqualify winning candidates from the September 18 elections for fraud offenses, in December of 2010 the Attorney General’s office accused IEC and ECC officials of conspiring to perpetrate fraud, and requested that the Supreme Court nullify the election results. At the time of this writing, the Attorney General’s investigation of the IEC and ECC is pending, and is being conducted in closed proceedings. See Yaroslav Trofimov, Afghan Supreme Court Asked to VoId Election, Wall St. J. (December 12, 2010), available at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1 0001424052748703380104576014981538748112.html. 1 99