Ensuring the use of the Code of good practice in electoral matters

Written question No. 589 to the Committee of Ministers | Doc. 12426 | 22 October 2010

Question from

Mr Michael Aastrup JENSEN, Denmark, ALDE

Thesaurus

Referring to the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission) Code of good practice in electoral matters, approved in 2003 by the Parliamentary Assembly and by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities;

Considering that at the general elections held in Sweden on 19 September 2010:

• there was a ballot paper for each party, instead of one ballot paper containing a list of all the parties and candidates, which can give rise to the following problems:
• the supervisors can monitor which ballot paper the voter selects to take into the polling booth and the secrecy can therefore be questioned;
• parties which at the previous election gained under 1% of the votes have the responsibility of producing and distributing the ballot papers;
• some media excluded certain parties from TV debates and advertising possibilities,

Mr Jensen,

To ask the Committee of Ministers,

How the Committee of Ministers will ensure that all European countries accept, use and follow the Code of good practice in electoral matters adopted by the Venice Commission regarding elections held in Europe, in order to secure free and fair elections and furthermore secure full respect for democracy, human rights and freedom of speech.