The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe today adopted a recommendation following the visit of a 19-member delegation to the Republic of Slovenia to observe the local elections held on Sunday 20 November 2022. On election day, eight Congress teams were deployed to different regions of the country in order to follow the electoral procedures in 120 polling stations.
The rapporteur, David Eray (Switzerland, EPP/CCE), welcomed the smooth running of the local elections. “These elections were conducted professionally by a highly decentralised election administration”, he said, highlighting the high level of trust among voters, candidates and other electoral stakeholders, as well as the special voting rights at local level granted to the three recognised communities. “This is an important feature of a truly democratic and inclusive environment”, he said. The report does, however, recommend that the competitiveness of the mayoral elections be enhanced. The observers stressed the importance of taking measures to counter the significant advantages of incumbency, including the accumulation of power, misuse of administrative resources, lack of transparency and undue influence over local media. Furthermore, although progress has been made in recent years, measures need to be taken to facilitate women’s participation in mayoral elections.
Despite the generally positive assessment, the rapporteur pointed to the need for standardised procedures across the country on election day, particularly with regard to the sealing of ballot boxes. “Ballot boxes should be marked more clearly to allow for their proper identification by voters,” he said.
“In addition, campaign finance regulations could be revised, in particular the low expenditure limits for campaign purposes due to which candidates, including independent ones, sometimes turn to creative ways to fund their campaigns”, he concluded.
Recommendation: 490 (2023)
Mediabox interview with David ERAY
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44th Session
Agenda – Web file – Multimedia (Live webcasts, interviews, videos and photo)
