Chapter 2: Legal Frameworks for Effective Election Complaints Adjudication Systems flawed system. Electoral participants and the general public in Pakistan lack confidence in the dispute resolution system’s capacity to function or an understanding of how they can successfully gain access to it. The rules for conduct of the adjudication process need to be clarified and rationalized. Authority and powers of institutions that are responsible for adjudication of pre-election and polling day complaints must be unambiguously stated. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has already demonstrated its recognition of the need for reforms in this area and shown its firm commitment to improving procedures through the ECP’s Election Complaint Adjudication (ECA) Reform Project. A proposed solution that emerged from the ECA Reform Project was a proposal to establish “District Enquiry Committees” at an intermediate level of election administration for submitting and disposing of complaints and challenges in a more expeditious manner. These Committees would provide a designated “point of entry” for complaints and challenges during the pre-election period and on polling day (along with the ECP itself). B. Country Example: Ghana 9 In Ghana, decisions of the Electoral Commission can be appealed to the courts, including cases involving voter registration and candidate nomination. Settlement of challenges to an application to register as a voter is under the responsibility of the District Registration Review Committee and its decision can be appealed to the Chief Registration Officer (High Court Judge of the region). For the purposes of hearing the cases relating to the challenged applications at the time of registration, a District Registration Review Committee (DRRC) was established in each district, made up of representatives of the active political parties in a district and not more than four local persons known to be neutral and fair-minded.  The Secretary to the District Registration Review Committee was the District Electoral Officer and the Commission provided that the District Education Officer, the District Police Officer and a representative of the traditional authority in the district should also be members.  The Commission further provided that the Supervising High Court Judge of each region should be the Chief Reg European Union Election Observation Mission, Ghana Final Report: PresIdential and Parliamentary Elections 2008 27 (February 2009), available at http://www.eueomghana.org/EN/ PDF/Final_report/EU_EOM_Final_Report_Ghana.pdf. 9 119