III. DISCUSSION OF THE DRAFT NATIONAL ELECTIONS LAW AND THE DRAFT ELECTION COMMISSIONS LAW

F. Collection of signatures for presidential candidacy

Article 49 of the draft national elections law requires that a candidate for President collect no less than 30,000 signatures of voters in support of his/her candidacy in order to be registered. This would lower the number of signatures required from 50,000, which is the current requirement. International good practice establishes that the number of signatures to be collected in support of candidacy should not exceed one per cent of the number of registered voters in the respective constituency.[1] This change is a positive development and should be included in the final version of the law.

[1] Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters, CDL-AD(2002)023rev,  I.1.3 ii.