International standards make it clear that a failure to comply with electoral law (including with respect to decisions made before the elections, inter alia in connection with the right to stand for election and the validity of candidacies) must be open to challenge before an appeal body, and that in cases where irregularities may have affected the outcome the appeal body must have authority to annul elections (entirely or partly, in the electoral zones affected). These standards do not, however, sanction measures such as those in issue in the present context, namely the direct replacement of the winning candidates with the second placed candidates.