Electoral Code Research Articles

Enforcement of the Code of Ethics for 2024 Election Organizers in Indonesia: A Substantive Justice Perspective

This study employs a normative legal research approach focusing on conceptual and legislative analysis. Its aim is to examine the dynamics of the enforcement of the electoral organizers’ code of ethics by the Indonesian Election Supervisory Agency (DKPP) and to formulate a reconstruction of this enforcement aimed at achieving substantive justice. The findings assert that the enforcement dynamics of the electoral organizers’ code of ethics by DKPP inherently pose two main issues. Internally, the enforcement requires oversight and public participation to ensure DKPP’s credibility and integrity in upholding the code of ethics. Externally, issues arise regarding the final and binding nature of DKPP decisions, which have been undermined by Constitutional Court rulings, allowing for their annulment by judicial bodies such as the Administrative Court (PTUN). Reconstruction or reform efforts concerning the enforcement of the electoral code of ethics for electoral administrators, based on substantive justice, necessitate a clear affirmation of the independence of ethical norms, particularly those related to the conduct of electoral administrators. This includes ensuring that the enforcement of these ethical norms is immune from legal norms and external intervention. Additionally, there is a need for a revision of the electoral laws in Indonesia to enhance the appeal process for ethical judgments rendered by the Election Supervisory Board (DKPP), which are final and binding and cannot be overturned by the courts, especially the Administrative Court (PTUN).

Polityczne konsekwencje niedostosowania liczby mandatów w okręgach wyborczych do zmian demograficznych w wyborach do Sejmu RP w 2023 r.

The subject of analysis in this article is the allocation of mandates among electoral districts in the elections to the Sejm of the Republic of Poland 2023 and its political consequences. According to the principle of electoral equality in material aspect, the number of voters per mandate in individual electoral districts should be the same or as close as possible. The National Electoral Commission has pointed out that the current division into electoral districts specified in the annexes to the Electoral Code violates this principle. Shifting mandates between electoral districts would alter the balance of political power in the parliament.

Парламентские и муниципальные выборы в Белоруссии

The article describes the preparations for the elections to the upper house of the Belarusian Parliament – the House of Representatives of the National Assembly and local councils of all levels in February 2024. After the last presidential election in 2020 and the mass protests that followed, the constitution and the electoral code were changed in Belarus. The 2024 elections were the first to be held under the new legislation. Belarus invited observers to the elections only from friendly countries and international organizations. EU observers loyal to the Belarusian regime were also invited. The Belarusian opposition failed to create serious obstacles to the holding of elections. A number of media personalities have joined the House of Representatives, which should increase the information activity of the new parliament.

Glosa do postanowienia Sądu Najwyższego z 7 września 2023 r., sygn. akt I NSW 15/23

On 7 September 2023, the Polish Supreme Court issued a decision on the complaint filed under Art. 161a Polish Electoral Code to the information from the National Electoral Commission of 30 August 2023, regarding the scope of powers of persons of trust and social election observers. Based on the decision of the Supreme Court, there are two fundamental issues that require consideration. Firstly, is the position of the Supreme Court correct, according to which the information of the NEC of 30 August 2023, which does not have the form of a resolution of the NEC, may be treated as an act subject to appeal under Art. 161a E.C. Secondly, does the Supreme Court rightly conclude that pursuant to Art. 103b § 1 point 1 of the E.C. in connection with Art. 103c § 2 of the E.C. it can be concluded that persons of trust and social observers have the right to observe other activities of district electoral commissions apart from the procedure of adopting voting protocols, determining voting and election results and preparing protocols. In order to find answers to the above questions, a formal legal method was used and the achievements of case law and literature were analyzed.

Dlaczego nie można inaczej? Ograniczona reprezentacja wyborców w sejmikach wojewódzkich w latach 2014–2024

The problem of distorting the representativeness of elections to provincial assemblies in Poland is widely noted. The local government elections in 2024 confirm the indicated state of affairs. In many situations, the natural electoral threshold significantly exceeds the statutory threshold, and large groups of citizens do not have their representation in the sejmiks, while the largest groupings are overrepresented. The authors of this article set out to compare the number of voters without representation in provincial assemblies after the introduction of the Electoral Code, i.e. in the 2014, 2018 and 2024 local elections, despite having voted for groupings that exceeded the statutory electoral threshold. The authors, using institutional-legal analysis and classical systemic analysis, also propose a simple way to solve the pointed out significant problem for the representativeness of the elections, which is the abandonment of the division of provinces into smaller electoral districts.

IEBC Enforcement of the Electoral Code of Conduct: Paradigm Shift or Hot Air?

IEBC Enforcement of the Electoral Code of Conduct: Paradigm Shift or Hot Air?

Conservative Narratives about Women’s Suffrage in Brazil Between 1933 and 1937: Nuances Regarding the Idea of Emancipation through the Right to Vote

The aim of this paper is to better understand opinions about the enfranchise-ment of women at the period immediately after the Electoral Code of 1932 until the beginning of the Estado Novo (from 1933 until 1937). It endeavoursto show how different to a so-called democratic progress of the 1930swomen’s suffrage was, through the analysis of the history of other countries and sources of the time (female, Catholic and alternative newspapers). It demonstrates, instead, the existence of movement in the construction of a narrative that puts the vote (and women’s emancipation) aside to adopt a type of persuasion aiming to maintain the status quo, used by both the Catholic Church and political powers

Redagowanie przepisów o wejściu w życie aktu normatywnego powszechnie obowiązującego – analiza krytyczna na marginesie nowelizacji ustawy – Kodeks wyborczy z 2023 r.

This article critically analyses the provisions on entry into force, based on the provisions of the 2023 Act Amending the Electoral Code, which made the entry into force of certain normative solutions dependent on a deadline specified in the announcement of the competent central authority of state administration. However, this construction is not found in the directives for the construction of legal acts, specified in the Principles of Legislative Technique of 2002. Additionally, the article also draws attention to legal problems resulting from the use of such blameworthy legislative practice, including in the context of the presumption of widespread familiarity with the law. Moreover, this announcement, in accordance with statutory regulations, was subject to promulgation in the Journal of Laws of the Republic of Poland, although this is not reflected in the Act on the Promulgation of Normative Acts and Certain Other Legal Acts. Therefore, this legislative maneouvre should be considered unacceptable and, consequently, in some cases, inconsistent with Article 2 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, which establishes the principle of a democratic rule-of-law state. In order to justify the presented thesis statement, the author analyses the provisions of the Act Amending the Electoral Code, discusses the conceptual apparatus and theoretical constructs in the context of law-making practice, using the hermeneutical and formal-dogmatic methods. The research opens up the field for broader considerations on compliance with the Principles of Legislative Technique in the law-making process.

A Few Comments on “Measures to Increase Turnout” Introduced by the Act of January 26, 2023 Amending the Electoral Code and Certain Other Acts

The extensive amendment to the Electoral Code made by the Act of January 26, 2023 – among other solutions – introduced instruments to facilitate voters’ access to polling stations, increasing the turnout level. The aim of the article is to present the adopted solutions and their assessment, made on the background of the legislative process accompanying the adoption of the act. The conducted analysis allows to assume that the discussed solutions do not take into account the interests of all entitled persons to an equal extent, ignore the consistently reported proposals of changes affecting the increase in attendance and imply organizational difficulties due to the moment of their introduction.

The Importance of Constitutional Awareness for the Exercise of Electoral Rights – Reflections on Guarantees for the Involvement of Social Actors in the Electoral Process

In the context of the 2018 amendments to the Electoral Code of the Republic of Poland, which aimed to increase the participation of citizens in elections and ensure the transparency of the electoral procedures, this article analyses the impact of constitutional awareness and the perception of the essence of the mechanisms of government implementation on the active interest of citizens and their involvement in electoral procedures. The author aims to describe the essential aspects of the electoral reform and to determine whether the transformation of the electoral administration model, instead of promoting citizen participation in the electoral process, has reduced their confidence in the credibility and fairness of the electoral procedures. This article was prepared in the framework of the National Science Centre funded research project No. 2017/27/L/HS5/03245 Constitutional Consciousness as a Remedy for the Crisis of Discourse and Democracy Deficit in the European Union (No. DEC-2017/27/L/HS5/03245).

Характеристика виборчої системи України через призму виборчого кодексу України

It has been established that the process of constant reform of the electoral legislation has a negative effect on the practice of its implementation. As you know, stable legislation is the most productive, and stable legislation is that which most adequately reflects public needs and provides effective mechanisms for their legal regulation. In many EU member states, the procedure for preparing and holding elections is determined by the Electoral Code. The Electoral Code allows not only to systematize and unify various types of election procedures, but also to create a legal basis, according to which instead of several normative legal acts, one would operate, which would regulate all legal relations in the electoral sphere without exception. Before the adoption of the Electoral Code, the electoral legislation of Ukraine consisted of an array of laws and regulatory acts that were partially duplicated, and in some cases had differences where there should be a unified approach to legal regulation. It has been found that the proportional electoral system with open lists, provided for by the Election Code of Ukraine for the elections of people's deputies, has a number of advantages of application in our state, namely: the general interest of citizens in the electoral process will increase, voters will be more careful in choosing worthy candidates; under this electoral system, a direct connection is established between a specific candidate and a voter, because voters know who they are voting for; the influence of corruption schemes will decrease and the chances that the parties will be able to send unprofessional candidates to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine will decrease significantly; competition between politicians in the party itself should increase, each deputy will be forced to work so that he is elected by the voters, and not to think about how to buy "passing" seats.

Specificity and Consequences of Impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic on the 2020 Local Election in Ukraine

The article examines the peculiarities of impact of the coronavirus pandemic on electoral process and voting results on the example of 2020 local elections in Ukraine. Using the complex of general scientific, logical and empirical methods, the peculiarities and problems of holding elections to local self-government bodies of Ukraine in 2020, which took place in the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been emphasized, that Ukrainian authorities didn’t follow the path of most foreign countries and decided not to postpone the date of local elections in 2020. Instead, the main accent was put on the use of special mechanisms of protection for Ukrainian citizens from the spread of coronavirus infection during the process of holding local elections. The authors prove, that the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t have a significant negative impact on 2020 local elections in Ukraine and didn’t cause major violations, which would question the legitimacy and democracy of election procedures. At the same time, the lowest voter turnout was mainly caused by the pandemic: almost a third of Ukrainian voters did not appear at the polling stations precisely for reasons related to the pandemic. It is also outlined, that during the 2020 local elections in Ukraine, a row of other negative factors of impact on electoral process and its quality (except of the factors directly related to the COVID-19 pandemic) appeared: in particular, the problems with financial provisions for introducing special measures for voting during the COVID-19 pandemic; changing election rules (adopting the Electoral Code) on the eve of local elections; insufficient state information policy regarding the clarification of the peculiarities of holding elections under the new electoral system in the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Legislative Solution to Prevent the Interference of Foreign Financing in the Electoral Campaign and their Destabilizing Effects

The Albanian legislation, the Electoral Code and the Law for political parties, prohibit the financing of the election campaign by foreign governments, institutions and/or public or private entities, for political parties and their candidates. Among the effects that such financing can cause, the main ones are: (i) misgovernance and the promotion of destabilizing situations in the country, (ii) the promotion and generation of destabilizing situations in the Balkan region. For well-known geostrategic reasons, the countries of the Western Balkans, including Albania, are really exposed to the interference of foreign funding in election campaigns. This situation conditions the need for further adjustments in the legislation with the following objectives: (i) preventing the interference of foreign financing in the election campaign (ii) strengthening the sanctions (ii) treating this legal violation as a serious criminal offense that must be included in SPAK jurisdiction. Among the issues that should be treated with priority are also the necessary legal regulations through which must be prevent the use of social media and portals as channels for the realization of the objectives aimed at by foreign fundings. Together with these changes, support for strengthen of the capacities of law enforcement institutions for tracking, identifying and punishing violations of the law that prohibits the financing of the election campaign of political parties and their candidates with foreign fund is necessary.
 
 Received: 05 May 2022 / Accepted: 16 May 2023 / Published: 20 May 2023

Erik Hornung discussion of: Women in politics

In 2021, women held 31.6% of seats in parliaments across OECD countries (OECD, 2021). A vast number of initiatives aim to achieve gender parity in politics. Changing electoral rules to induce gender equality might, however, come with unintended and unpredictable consequences. This paper exploits a change in electoral rules to study gender discrimination as an unintended outcome of gender parity legislation. In 2013, the electoral code for the election of departmental councils in France was amended to state that voters elect two members of the opposite sex in a tandem. As a result, these assemblies became gender-balanced by design. Because their names needed to be arranged in alphabetical order, some pairs listed female candidates first (treatment group) whereas others listed male candidates first (control group). The authors of this paper argue that voters did not understand the electoral rules well enough and assumed that the first listed candidate was the main candidate. This had consequences for the electoral results if the pair listing a female candidate first was nominated by a right-wing party, whereas the ordering did not affect results for other parties. Female-first right-wing pairs received 1.5% fewer votes.

Ways of implementation of international electoral standards in the national legislation of Ukraine

The article is devoted to the study of the problems of implementation and ways of implementation of international electoral standards in the national electoral legislation of Ukraine. The work provides a critical review of scientific approaches of domestic and foreign scholars to understanding the legal nature of the implementation of international acts. The author concludes that the implementation of international acts is a state-building/law-making process of individual countries, which includes the recognition by the state of international legal norms and their implementation in national legislation and in practice with a view to comprehensive, timely and full implementation of the obligations assumed by the state under international law.
 The article analyzes the existing positions of legal scholars on the ways of implementing international legal standards in legal science and, on this basis, identifies and characterizes the ways of implementing international electoral standards in the national legislation of Ukraine. The main such ways are, firstly, reception, when there is a textual repetition of the content of the act/norm adopted by the international community in the national legislation of the respective state without their changes. That is, it is the actual repetition of the content of international law by the relevant acts of national law. Secondly, transformation, which is a method of implementation associated with the revision of the text of an international legal act in accordance with the principles of the national legal system and the adoption of domestic law on this basis. This makes it possible to implement the norms of international law with their maximum compliance with the domestic principles of rule-making technique. Its separate form is a reference, when a norm is created that refers to international acts, traditions of international law. Thanks to this form, the State authorizes the direct application of international law in domestic legal relations. It is determined that these ways of implementing international electoral standards in the national electoral legislation were especially evident in the adoption of the Electoral Code of Ukraine.

Instead of the Electoral Code of the Russian Federation

The subject of the study is the legal norms regulating public relations regarding the functioning of institutions of direct democracy in the Russian Federation, as well as drafts of the electoral Code of the Russian Federation and the opinions of scientists on the need to develop and adopt a federal electoral code, as well as the definition of the codification of law as such. The author comes to the conclusion that the previously proposed draft codes are not inherently codification products, since they basically reproduce the norms of existing legislation instead of radically changing it. At the same time, similar problems exist not only with regard to the right to vote, but also in the legal regulation of other institutions of direct democracy.As a result of the conducted research, the author comes to the conclusion that in order to realize the democratic nature of the Russian state, increase the efficiency of the functioning of direct democracy institutions, reduce their dependence on the discretion of public authorities, increase the guarantees of citizens for access to them, it is possible and necessary to develop, widely discuss and adopt the Code of Democracy of the Russian Federation. In the work, the author sets out the original concept of the code, in particular, justifies its name, the form of the federal constitutional law, and also describes the proposed structure of the code, which should include general provisions, sections on subjects of direct democracy, on the functioning of individual democratic institutions, as well as a section on the infrastructure of democracy.

The Right to Vote in the Light of an Individual’s End of Life

This paper has the following research thesis: An individual’s end of life has far-reaching legal effects, also in the sphere of the person’s subjective rights. The research problem consists in reflecting on the right to vote, understood as a human right, in the light of a set of legal norms that undergo changes quite frequently. The aim of this paper is to examine what concepts the legislator uses to describe the death of a person and what effects it brings in the sphere of substantive law? Does the current legal state require amendments? If so, what kind of changes? To determine this, I will examine two fundamental normative acts in the Polish system of sources of law: the Constitution and the Electoral Code. In the research conducted, I will apply the formal-dogmatic method. Apart from legal regulations, I will examine the opinions of legal scientists and some relevant judicial decisions. The Constitution does not link the consequences in the sphere of the electoral law to the end of individual’s life. Electoral Code uses the terms “death” and “died” directly providing for the end of life in special situations confirming the natural consequence of a given state of affairs and requiring various procedural steps. The author expresses the hope that his findings will become the basis for further profound research on the issues of electoral procedures related to the death of a person as: a voter, candidate or member of electoral bodies.

Odpowiedzialność pełnomocnika finansowego komitetu wyborczego za korzyści majątkowe przyjęte przez komitet wyborczy z naruszeniem prawa

The paper discusses the question of the nature of the forfeiture of the equivalent of a material benefit, as provided for in the Electoral Code, applied to the financial representative of the committee, and whether and under what conditions this regulation can be considered constitutionally permissible. This issue has not been the subject of extensive doctrinal analysis but is of practical importance. The article discusses the purpose of financing party electoral committees exclusively through the party’s electoral fund, as well as the reasons for introducing the discussed solution into the Electoral Code. Then, guided by the proportionality test developed by the Constitutional Tribunal, an assessment of the usefulness, necessity, and proportionality sensu stricto was carried out. This analysis led to the conclusion that the provisions establishing financial liability for the financial representative are indeed restrictive, but in the existing normative environment, they may be considered as meeting constitutional requirements.

Komisarze wyborczy – ewolucja instytucji po 2018 r.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the political position and powers entrusted to election commissioners after the amendment of the Electoral Code in 2018. Election commissioners, as plenipotentiaries of the National Electoral Commission, participate in all types of elections, and their powers granted under the amendment to the Electoral Code strengthen their position as an electoral body, but also in relation to local government. The changes that have been made significantly increased the number of appointed election commissioners to 100, departed from the adopted judicial model, and gave the authority to an external body, i.e. the executive body, to decide which of the candidates and according to what criteria will be selected and then presented National Electoral Commission.

Organizational politics and professional struggles in nursing.

to analyze the professional struggles between nursing organizational entities, in Rio de Janeiro, during the Regional Nursing Council's electoral process (1990-1993 administration). historical study. We used journalistic articles, normative documents, legislation and semi-structured interviews with five nursing professionals who participated in this process. Interpretation of findings was supported by Bourdieu's concepts of habitus, field, capital, and symbolic power. Electoral Code changes of the aforementioned council, under the influence of administration (1987-1990), candidate for re-election, influenced the disclosure and eligibility criteria, making it difficult for broad participation, especially of Associação Brasileira de Enfermagem Rio de Janeiro Section. nursing, in this period, generated a field of disputes related to positions of power and gender, which was evidenced in the electoral process studied, which highlighted using limiting strategies by a group, making it difficult for the entire category to participate.