Home > 2.1.1 Electoral commissions > ALBANIA- Joint Opinion on the Electoral Code
 
 
 
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Paragraph 68
 

Article 32(2) allows a political party who has nominated a member of the ZEAC to substitute its member. The OSCE/ODIHR and the Venice Commission have previously criticised this provision in the Code. The ability of political parties to control the actions of the persons they have appointed to election commissions, by virtue of the unlimited powers to appoint and remove members at will, significantly hampers the development of an independent, professional, efficient, and non-partisan election administration. The Venice Commission’s Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters is quite clear on this point:  “The bodies appointing members of electoral commissions must not be free to dismiss them at will.”[23] The ability to arbitrarily replace members of election commissions without legal cause also raises an issue of compatibility with international and European standards.