ODIHR launches second edition of guidelines for reviewing election legislation

The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) presented a revised and expanded edition of its guidelines for reviewing electoral legislation, during the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw on 30 September 2013.

The second edition of the Guidelines for Reviewing a Legal Framework for Elections is designed to contribute to uniformity, reliability, consistency and accuracy in the review, assessment and development of electoral legislation.

The guidelines can be helpful for both reviewers of electoral legislation and for national legislators in drafting or amending election-related documents in line with OSCE commitments and international standards.

Among the themes covered in the publication are districting and equal suffrage, electoral thresholds, data protection, election administration, national minorities, gender, voting by internally displaced persons (IDPs), the protection of electoral rights, and postal, early and proxy voting.

The updated edition builds on the original publication released in 2001; a section on new voting technologies has been added, and some thematic chapters have been expanded.

The guidelines are available both online and in print.