Applicable legislation

The Venice Commission has consistently advocated for the need to ensure stability of electoral law.3 As stated in the explanatory report to the Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters, “[s]tability of the law is crucial to credibility of the electoral process, which is itself vital to consolidating democracy. Rules which change frequently – and especially rules which are complicated – may confuse voters. Above all, voters may conclude, rightly or wrongly, that electoral law is simply a tool in the hands of the powerful, and that their own votes have little weight in deciding the results of elections. The problem is not so much changing voting systems – they can always be changed for the better – but rather changing them frequently or just before (within one year of) elections. Even when no manipulation is intended, changes will seem to be dictated by immediate party-political interests.”4 In the current situation, with no elected institution in office, the issue of stability does not arise as such. However, it seems appropriate to take the legislation applied to the latest recent elections as a point of departure. This is particularly true for the law to be applied to a constitutional referendum to be organised before any elections and/or to the first elections to take place in the absence of any democratically elected institutions.