Home > 1.2 Equal suffrage > Report on the Compliance with Council of Europe and other International Standards of the Inclusion of a not Internationally Recognised Territory into a Nationwide Constituency for Parliamentary Elections
 
 
 
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Paragraph 35
 

It needs to be recalled that under international humanitarian law the state of occupation is seen as temporary, and the occupying State must refrain from introducing any important institutional changes in the territory under its (provisional) control that would predetermine the future status of this territory (see above para. 29). The permanent incorporation by the occupying State of the occupied territory into its own national constituency and extending to it the application of its electoral laws is likely to be seen as a measure constituting such important institutional changes. The organisation of elections for a provisional authority for the occupied territory would seem more in line with the obligations of an occupying power than including the territory in the national constituency.