Home > 2.4 Complaints and appeals > Urgent Report on the cancellation of election results by Constitutional Courts
 
 
 
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Section 16.
 

Elections are large and complex processes, involving numerous actors as well as the voters, aimed to produce an electoral result that will “ensure the free expression of the opinion of the people”, according to Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 of the ECHR. The ex-post annulment of an election by a constitutional court, or another judicial body deciding as the final instance, is therefore a significant event in the life of a democratic State. Annulment effectively means that the judge overrules the expression of the opinion of the people on the basis that the election was contrary to the rules. The discretion of the judge to annul elections should therefore be guided and limited by conditions set out in the law. The role of the judge is to decide if the legal conditions for annulment are met in each individual case.