11/09/2012 Political Affairs and Democracy
Strasbourg, 11.09.2012 - In a draft resolution “For more democratic elections” adopted today in Helsinki, the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) observes that election-related violations persist in several member States – opacity of election campaign funding, misuse of administrative resources, pressure and intimidation brought to bear on candidates and voters, unequal access to the media, the electoral administration’s lack of independence, neutrality and impartiality, restrictions on the right to vote and to stand for election, vote buying, ballot box stuffing, and ineffective complaints procedures.
“Whereas domestic electoral legislation in most member States generally offers a good basis to hold ‘free and fair’ elections, recurrent violations are mainly due to the lack of political commitment at the highest level, generally on the part of the ruling political forces, to ensure full and effective implementation of the law and a level playing field to all candidates,” said Jean-Charles Gardetto (Monaco, EPP/CD), the author of the report.
“While most of the violations that occur on voting day and during counting are more frequent on the whole in countries without such a long tradition of democracy, others, such as those linked to election campaign and political party funding, media impartiality and use of administrative resources, also occur in member States with long-standing democratic experience. At present, the most serious violations tend to occur in the pre-electoral period and are thus more difficult to detect,” the rapporteur emphasised.
The draft resolution recommending a series of measures to improve the democratic character of elections, encourage participation, guarantee transparency and tighten control will be debated by the PACE during its next plenary session in Strasbourg from 1 to 5 October.