It is therefore highly commendable that according to draft Article 11 of the LGE, the Office shall – contrary to the “Office of political party registration and certification” in its current form –enjoy operational independence, have its own budget and not be part of the CEC Secretariat. At the same time, in the view of the Venice Commission it would be preferable that its budget be administered by the Office itself instead of the CEC Secretariat (as foreseen in draft paragraph 1/B) and that the Office be empowered to recruit its own staff. It also seems necessary to regulate the procedure for the appointment of the director of the Office and the rest of the staff more precisely, to introduce safeguards for merit-based recruitment and eligibility criteria based on integrity and professional competence, and to define the salaries. As to the selection of the director, it is not convincing that the requirements are on several points less strict than the requirements for the selection of external auditors. Notably, the requirement that auditors have not had contractual relations with political entities, have not benefited from them and have not been donors during the last three years, should also be introduced for the selection of the Office director; the same applies to absence of affiliation with political entities, which has been recommended above with respect to auditors.