OSCE/ODIHR NeedsAssessment Mission Report Early Parliamentary Elections Principality of Andorra(2011-04-03)

I. COMPLAINTS AND APPEALS

Complaints and appeals areregulated in the election law, ensuring a right to judicial review for allaspects of the election process. The Electoral Board is the body of first instance for most election-relatedcomplaints, including candidate registration, campaigning and the use ofthe media. It is required by law to respond within a tight deadline. Exceptionsto the role of the Electoral Board as the first instance complaint body includecomplaints regarding voter registration, which are made to local councils,complaints on election day, which are made to the polling station, andcomplaints about the results that are made directly to the courts. Decisions ofthe Electoral Board and the local councils can be appealed to theAdministrative Chamber of the High Court of Justice. Should any aspects of thecomplaint relate to fundamental rights and freedoms, the decision of the HighCourt of Justice can be further appealed to the Constitutional Court.

As of 24 March, there hadbeen four complaints made to the Electoral Board. The most reported complaintrelated to the issuance in one private daily newspaper of a list of theachievements of the Government. While it is against the law for the Governmentto use paid advertising during the campaign period, as the piece submitted wasprovided free of charge by the newspaper involved, the Electoral Board decidedthat the activity was not in contravention to the law. The coalition thatsubmitted the complaint stated that they would not appeal, as it appeared theGovernment had not published any further such reports.

E. CANDIDATEREGISTRATION

All Andorrancitizens who are eligible to vote have the right to stand for elections. Forthe General Council elections, any association or group of citizens maynominate candidate lists at the national and parish levels. Candidate lists forthe national level must consist of 14 candidates and 3 substitutes, whileparish lists consist of 2 candidates and 3 substitutes.

Candidate listsare submitted along with support signatures. Both national and parish listsmust be supported by 0.5 per cent of registered voters; each voter can signonly for one parish and one national candidate list.

Candidate listsmust be submitted within five working days after the announcement of theelections. The lists for the parish level elections are registered by the localcouncils and the national lists are registered by the Government. For theforthcoming elections four national candidate lists and two parish lists ineach of seven parishes are registered. Some interlocutors noted that five dayswas a short timeframe for parties and coalitions to decide upon candidates andfor the signatures to be collected.

Officefor Democratic Institutions and Human Rights,

http://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/76277 as retrieved on2013-11-09.

Qualified Law 28/2007, ofNovember 22, amending Qualified Law on the Electoral System and Referendum (2007-11-22)

ChapterThree. Candidatures

Article 24. Appeals beforethe Electoral Commission

1. The candidates and legal representatives of thecandidatures may appeal to the Electoral Commission against a motivatedrejection or proclamation of candidatures, within one working day from the dateof publication of the rejection or proclamations thereof.

2. The Electoral Commissionshall immediately demand the records to the corresponding local council or tothe Government, which shall submit them within one working day aftercommunicating this circumstance to the legal representatives of the other candidatures,who shall have another working day to make statements before the ElectoralCommission.

3. The decision of theElectoral Commission shall be issued within one working day from the conclusionof this period. Against it there shall be the right to appeal before theAdministrative Section of the Higher Court of Justice, regulated by this law.

Article 28. Competences ofthe Electoral Commission

1. The Electoral Commissionshall have the following responsibilities:

b) Determine any complaintor consultation submitted by interested parties in the development of theelection process and related to the specific competences of the ElectionCommission.

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2. Public authorities,candidatures or their candidates or proxies, election administrators, heads ofmedia, and voters, all of them having a legitimate interest, as assessed by theCommission, shall be entitled to submit consultations, complaints or appealsbefore the Electoral Commission, according to the present law.

3. The Electoral Commissionwill adopt its decisions in the form of recommendations, resolutions or generalprovisions, which shall be published in the Official Gazette of thePrincipality of  Andorra. Decisions shallbe motivated to the extent necessary.

The resolutions andprovisions shall be mandatory for all authorities and citizens and immediatelyexecutive, allowing the Commission to adopt all the necessary provisionalmeasures that may be necessary in emergency cases.

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6. There shall be a rightto appeal against the provisions and resolutions of the Electoral Commission tothe Administrative Chamber of the Higher Court of Justice, within twenty fourhours following the notification of the decision. The same day, in which theappeal is presented, the Chamber will submit it to the parties and to theAttorney-General’s Office, so that they may formulate responses.

The Higher Court of Justiceshall pronounce within the period of fortyeight hours, its understanding incompliance with respect to constitutional requirements.

Legislationline.org,