The Code of good practice in electoral matters, the Council of Europe’s reference document in the electoral field, recommends that time limits for lodging and deciding appeals be short while stating that they must however be long enough to make an appeal possible, to guarantee the exercise of the rights of defence and a reflected decision. Indeed, a number of cases brought before administrative or jurisdictional bodies are rejected for procedural reasons, either because time limits are exceeded or because the competent bodies do not take the time to analyse the substantive elements of the case, arguing of short deadlines. The question of time limits will be developed in Part VII of the report.