The central criterion for cancelling elections, recognised by international standards and primarily by the Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters, is the question of whether irregularities may have affected the outcome of the vote: “The appeal body must have authority to annul elections where irregularities may have affected the outcome. It must be possible to annul the entire election or merely the results for one constituency or one polling station. In the event of annulment, a new election must be called in the area concerned.”41 In the same vein, the former European Commission of Human Rights and the ECtHR have held that irregularities in the electoral process only interfere with the free expression of the opinion of the people if the irregularities led to a genuine prejudice to the outcome of the election and distort the election results.42

b. Level and burden of proof, guidelines for the assessment