For instance, the Political Parties Act 2002 in Sierra Leone and the
Broadcasting Act 1989 in New Zealand classify certain types of
misconduct related to campaign finance as criminal offences.
Figure 6.1. What types of law provide for election-related criminal offences?
7%
21%
Special electoral law
Criminal (or Penal) code
Both specific electoral law
and Criminal (or Penal) code
72%
Notes: Data for 169 countries. Graph represents the data in EJD as of August 2015.
What types of election-related misconduct are
regarded as criminal offences?
The most crucial question in this part of the database is to find out
what specific types of election-related misconduct or irregularities
are considered criminal offences in law. It is known that a country’s
political culture and electoral practices can have an impact on the
treatment of some types of conduct as acceptable or unacceptable
(Orozco-Henríquez et al. 2010: paras 108–109). For instance,
transporting voters to or from a polling station may be an offence
in many countries, but this practice is permitted in the UK where it
is regarded as a provision that ensures a level playing field (OrozcoHenríquez et al. 2010: paras 108–109). Global comparative data
about how countries define election-related criminal offences is useful
for researchers and practitioners.
The findings on this question are presented in Figure 6.2. The grouping
of offences in this way is based on the suggested classification of forms
of misconduct provided in Chapter 4 of the Handbook (OrozcoHenríquez et al. 2010: 45–47), the only difference being that this
research divides voter coercion into two parts: (a) incentive-driven
voter coercion, such as vote buying or making the provision of public
services conditional on voting in a certain way; and (b) threat-driven
voter coercion, such as voter intimidation or putting other types of
pressure on voters to vote in a certain way.
Grouping offences in this general way might not be helpful for those
who are interested in particular types of offence, such as voting more
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