Several positive draft amendments to the Election Code have been kept in the bill after the publication of the first Joint Urgent Opinion, including those related to measures tackling misuse of administrative resources, strengthening the process for determination of the election results, and enhancing the electoral dispute resolution process. At the same time, a number of further recommendations formulated in the first Joint Urgent Opinion are still valid and should be taken into account in future reforms, inter alia those aimed at
- prohibiting both the presence of partisan representatives and campaign activity in the areas around polling stations on election day; those areas should be clearly defined (e.g. a perimeter of 100 meters from the room where the ballot box is placed);
- adopting a comprehensive regulatory framework that specifies clear and objective criteria for granting and conducting recounts and annulments to ensure transparent, fair and uniform practice in the counting and tabulation of results and handling of post-election disputes;
- facilitating the timely handling of election disputes in the courts by allowing electronic submission of complaints to the courts, submission until midnight on the deadline day, and the possibility for remote hearings;
- further extending the timeframes for submission and adjudication of complaints, to three to five days, and ensuring that technical formalities do not prevent due consideration of complaints;
- addressing previous Venice Commission and ODIHR recommendations requiring single-mandate electoral districts to be of an approximately equal population size;
- establishing a detailed and comprehensive regulatory framework for the use of new voting technologies (bearing in mind that in light of the limited time remaining before the 2021 local elections, it may be that a pilot project for certain electronic technologies is the only viable option for the next elections).
