Guidelines for Understanding, Adjudicating, and Resolving Disputes in Elections to understand who the target audience is and what they do or do not know. Most often, the largest challenge faced in training is that competency must be attained in a short period of time. Before focusing on the task of training EMBs in electoral complaints adjudication, it is necessary to understand the challenges faced in developing training programs for election officials in general, especially in countries where democratic election systems have not yet had the time to fully mature. B. Challenges i. Electoral complaints adjudication systems are still developing The discipline of electoral complaint management is still evolving. For many years, electoral complaints were primarily the domain of legal systems. This had its drawbacks, especially in those countries where the legal system was not held in high regard or was tarred as being unduly guided by political influences as opposed to an overarching notion of “justice.” In some contexts, opposition leaders often felt they could not get a fair hearing due to the lack of objectivity on the part of politically appointed judges. In addition, courts often move at a glacial pace. Courts have systems of due process that err on the side of thoroughness and thus can sometimes be ill-suited for quick resolution of cases. This is not advantageous when an election hangs in the balance. As a result of these factors, many countries are moving towards systems where more and more election complaints are handled by special election courts, by EMBs or by commissions specifically created for deciding election cases. Such institutions primarily deal with administrative rather than criminal matters while the court system remains the channel for dealing with appeals. A few examples illustrate the diversity of systems in place in many countries employing mixed systems. • In Latvia, complaints and appeals are regulated by several laws and executed by a number of judicial and administrative bodies. Decisions of Municipal Election Commissions and Polling Station Committees may be appealed to the Central Election 140