Home > 2.4 Complaints and appeals > ALBANIA- Joint Opinion on the Electoral Code
 
 
 
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Paragraph 84
 

 Article 146 of the Code regulates the procedure for selecting judges on the Electoral College. The procedure has remained unchanged from the previous Electoral Code (Article 163). Clause (3) gives the two largest political parties of both the parliamentary majority and opposition the right to remove one of the judges selected by the initial lottery. Already in the 2004 Joint Recommendations, the OSCE/ODIHR and the Venice Commission had criticised this privilege and recommended its use to be phased out.[25] Article 146(3) raises a question of compatibility with the principle of the independence of the judiciary.[26]  Under Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a state has an obligation to ensure the impartiality of courts and tribunals.  As noted by the United Nations Human Rights Committee, this requires judges to be selected without political interference and the prohibition on political interference extends to “appointment, remuneration, tenure, promotion, suspension and dismissal” of judges.[27]  A system that grants to four specific political parties a significant role in the selection of the judges on the Electoral College is a system that facilitates political interference in the establishment of the judiciary and is contrary to Article 14 of the ICCPR.  Further, this provision is unnecessary since a judge can be challenged and excluded from a case where justified by the facts.[28] The Venice Commission and the OSCE/ODIHR recommend that Article 146(3) of the Electoral Code be accordingly amended and revised to comply with Article 14 of the ICCPR.