• Transparency, clarity and simplicity of the provisions that regulate the EDR system, as well as ensuring that they are duly published and consistently followed • Access in terms of time, space and cost to complete and effective electoral justice, including the ability to complain at the lowest level (at the polling station) • Availability of an electoral justice system either free of charge or at a reasonable cost • Timeliness • Right to a defence or hearing and due process of law for litigants • Full enforcement of judgements and decisions • Consistency in the interpretation and application of the electoral laws a) Transparency, clarity and simplicity in the provisions that regulate the EDR system 341. An optimal design for an EDR system demands clarity and simplicity. The constitutional, statutory and regulatory provisions for challenges that guarantee compliance with the electoral legal framework and the defence of electoral rights must be drafted in simple and clear language in order to meet the requirements of access to justice and legal certainty. Their content must be broadly disseminated in the language of the community where the election is to be held to ensure that they are transparent and easily understood by all interested persons and consistently followed – especially by the EDRBs. 342. Professional development of the legal personnel at the EDRBs should be encouraged in order for them to be able to deal with any inadequacies, inefficiencies or gaps in the legal framework through technically sustainable interpretations. It is important to have good laws, but it is perhaps even more important to have good judges. 343. Ambiguous, vague, evasive or incomplete legal provisions can give rise to confusion about the challenges that may be brought against a particular electoral action and the organ with jurisdiction to rule on it. Such confusion can be detrimental to electoral justice, and could eventually be manipulated and exploited. It can obstruct the electoral process and the imparting of justice, as well as causing delays in elected candidates taking up their office and casting a shadow over their legitimacy. 344. Accordingly, the electoral and procedural laws should clearly lay down – preferably in a particular law on electoral procedures or in a particular chapter of the electoral legislation – the various electoral challenges that are available and the body authorized to resolve them. These should contain clear 119 6. Principles and guarantees of EDR systems Box 6.11. Procedural guarantees or principles of efficiency and effectiveness of EDR systems