Joint Guidelines for Preventing and Responding to the Misuse of Administrative Resources During Electoral Processes

The Guidelines follow the Venice Commission’s Report on the misuse of administrative resources during electoral processes and the conclusions of the 11th European Conference of Electoral Management Bodies that dealt with this topic on 26-27 June 2014 in Helsinki. In these conclusions, the participants to the Conference invited “the Council for Democratic Elections […] to consider developing guidelines aimed at preventing the misuse of administrative resources during electoral processes”. The guidelines also build upon the OSCE/ODIHR’s election observation findings and recommendations in respect of the misuse of administrative resources. The Guidelines are aimed at assisting national lawmakers and other authorities in adopting laws and initiating concrete measures to prevent and act against the misuse of administrative resources during electoral processes. Therefore, they are not intended as a set of hard rules.