The delegation of the Council of Europe’s Congress of Regional and Local Authorities that conducted an ad-hoc assessment of the local elections of 18 November 2018 in Slovenia gave an overall positive evaluation to the vote, but noted that there is room for improvement in such areas as sealing of ballot boxes and identifying them, training members of election boards and participation of women as candidates, says the report adopted on 3 April 2019.
Despite the introduction of a gender mainstreaming policy in the local elections procedures, the share of women candidates was relatively low: 100 out of 688 candidates in Mayoral elections in the total of 212 Municipalities of Slovenia, with the indicator even lower in larger, urban municipalities (11 women out of 87 candidates). The participation of women as candidates in local elections can still be improved, the report says.
It describes as “exemplary” the involvement of members of the State-recognised national minorities (Italian, Hungarian and Roma) in municipal decision-making processes and notes the on-going debate about the protection of rights of other national minorities which do not enjoy the State recognition, mainly the nationals of the former Yugoslavia (who outnumber the recognised national minorities) and a small German speaking community.
The report characterises media landscape in Slovenia as pluralistic, notes a high level of trust in the integrity of electoral process observed throughout the “calm and uneventful” Election Day, and the professional management of the elections. “Voters were able to express their will in full accordance with international standards”, the report says.
However, the delegation recommended that all ballot boxes be sealed properly and by identical seals, and the seal numbers systematically noted down in the record book. Besides, it could be useful to better identify the ballot boxes for the different elections (Mayoral, Local Council, etc.) to make it easier for the voters to distinguish between them.
*** 36th Session of the Congress ***
