Who may file a complaint?

OSCE/ODIHRElection Assessment Mission Final Report Early Elections Of The NationalAssembly Republic Of Slovenia (2011-12-04)

XIV. COMPLAINTS AND APPEALS

Election dispute resolution is primarily regulated by theelectoral law. The Act on Administrative Disputes is also applicable withregard to the Supreme Court as is the Constitutional Court Act with regard tothat court. In addition, the Voting Rights Register Act regulates disputespertaining to voter registration. Overall, the legislation provides foreffective and timely legal remedy, and there is public confidence in theadjudication bodies and procedures.

The election law stipulates that complaints on irregularities inthe candidate nomination procedure may be lodged with the ConECs. As a second instance,the law provides for ajudicial review of the ConEC decisions on candidate registration with theSupreme Court. However,it is not clear whether a complaint may be lodged with the Supreme Court onlyagainst decisions of electoral commissions on candidate registration or on thelegality of any acts adopted by electoral bodies, as specified by the Law onAdministrative Disputes.47

(47 On 12January 2012, the Constitutional Court decided that appeals against ConECs arenot possible given that elections are a fast process and that all issues needto be solved immediately. Decision, Uv1/2012. )

 Moreover, the Law onAdministrative Disputes stipulates that the Supreme Court decides on thelegality of acts adopted by electoral bodies. In most cases, timeframes aresufficiently short (48 hours to file complaints or appeals) and for thecompetent body to give a decision, in line with international best practice.

A constitutional complaint against an individual act of theauthorities may be filed with the Constitutional Court after all other legalremedies have been exhausted.48

(48 Article 51 of the Constitutional Court Act. )I

 In such cases, the legaldeadline for lodging a complaint is 60 days and there is no deadline for theConstitutional Court to take a decision. Although the OSCE/ODIHR EAM was toldby the court that short, 48-hour timeframes are applied to election-relateddisputes in practice, long deadlines have the potential of depriving somecomplainants of their right to effective remedy.

Complaints about alleged irregularities at a PS or DEC, includingelection results, are lodged with the ConECs. The law states that “if the NECestablishes such irregularities in the work of a ConEC, which considerablyaffect, or could affect, the election results, then it shall determine theelection results in the constituency itself.” However, the law does not specifywhether the NEC assesses the legality of acts of the ConECs ex officio oron the basis of a complaint/appeal.

The election law could be amended to explicitly state whether theNEC has competence to assess the legality of ConEC acts on the basis ofcomplaints and/or ex officio, as well as who may file a complaint. It couldalso clarify what kinds of irregularities affect the election result.

The Constitution mandates the National Assembly to confirmparliamentary mandates. This is done by the Commission for Public Office andElections, which is formed at the first session of the new National Assemblyand ceases to exist after mandates have been confirmed. Candidates or theirrepresentatives have the right to lodge complaints with the Commission ondecisions of electoral commissions that could have affected the confirmation ofa deputy’s term of office. The Commission decides on all such complaints beforeconfirming mandates. This may constitute a conflict of interest, potentiallyaffecting the impartiality of the Commission and its decisions. However, suchCommission decisions can be appealed to the Constitutional Court.50

(50 Judicial review is provided by the Article 69 of theConstitutional Court Act. The law does not provide details on procedures forchallenging decisions of election commissions, particularly on the appointmentof election administration members. It only provides that such decisions can beappealed to the Supreme Court.)

In order to avoid ambiguity and uncertainty, including potentialconflict of jurisdiction, legal provisions could be revised to establish auniform, hierarchical dispute procedure for all decisions and acts of electoralcommissions.

Eleven complaints were filed with ConECs by the SPSP on the denialof candidate list registrations in all eight constituencies, the TRS and the‘Green Party’ in Constituency 3 and the Stranka Humana Slovenija inConstituency 5. The rejections were appealed to the Supreme and theConstitutional Court, which upheld the ConECs’ decisions.

The OSCE/ODIHR EAM was informed of pre-election day complaintsfiled by voters that were not considered significant by ConECs and the NEC andwere not addressed. In addition, some 179 complaints were lodged with the MoIInspectorate on alleged violations of campaign rules, including violations ofcampaign silence (see Media section).51 The Information Commissioner dealt withseven alleged violations of the Personal Data Republic of Slovenia ProtectionAct by political parties or candidates. At the time of this report,investigations were still ongoing.

VI. ELECTION ADMINISTRATION

The elections were administrated at four levels: the NEC, 8Constituency Election Commissions (ConECs), 88 District Election Commissions(DECs) and over 3,649 Polling Boards (PBs) in Slovenia, and an additional 34PBs abroad.

Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights,

http://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/87786  as retrieved on2013-11-08.

NationalAssembly Elections Act ( consolidated text  (ZVDZ-UPB1)(2006-09-29)

Ministryof Justice,

www.mp.gov.si/fileadmin/mp.gov.si/.../mp.../zvdz_anglesko.doc as retrieved on 2013-11-08.

Administrative Dispute Act (ZUS-1)(2006-09-08)

Chapter 3Competences and composition of the court

Section 1 Subject matter jurisdiction

Article 12

(1) The Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia(hereinafter referred to as the Supreme Court) shall decide in theadministrative dispute over the legality of acts issued by election bodies atelections to the National Assembly, the National Council and for the Presidentof Slovenia. (2) The Supreme Court shall adjudicate on the appealand on the revision. (3) The Supreme Court shall adjudicate on disputesregarding the division of jurisdiction between an administrative and othercourt.

Ministry of the Interior ofSlovenia,