With the increasing relevance of the question of free and fair elections, not only to new and emerging democracies but also to established ones, a fresh conceptual analysis was long overdue.
What objective criteria can be used to judge whether elections are free and fair? In 1994, the IPU answered this question by showing what international law requires in principle and how the practice of States and international organizations gives concrete expression to these norms. The study by Professor Guy Goodwin-Gill, entitled Free and Fair Elections formed the basis of the Declaration on Criteria for Free and Fair Elections adopted by the Inter-Parliamentary Council later that year.
The original IPU study dating from 1994 makes it clear that the concept of free and fair elections is dynamic. For example, the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights considered the secret vote to be only as appropriate as "equivalent free voting procedures". Yet today, the secret ballot is seen to be a fundamental component of a free and fair election. Nor should the study be read as a simple checklist for evaluating elections. The quality of an election must always be appreciated in the light of historical and cultural circumstances. To this end, international law’s scheme of basic rules provides a number of organizing principles around which to assess the "validity" of national legislation and practice, considered in terms of their contribution to the effective implementation of international obligations.
The IPU has just published a new, expanded edition of the study, with support from the Ford Foundation. This new edition reviews progress in the adoption and consolidation of relevant international standards since 1994; it assesses developments in law and practice (including such emerging issues as electronic voting and gender balance); identifies outstanding problematic areas; and sets out some of the bases for a present and future research agenda. The second part contains the full text of the 1994 study in its original form.
The new study demonstrates that the notion of democratic representative government, as the product of elections genuinely reflecting the will of the people, is increasingly recognized. This recognition is in turn leading to ever closer attention being paid to the "representative" quality of electoral systems, including the manner by which votes are transformed into seats in the legislature, and thereby also into governments; to the fundamental principle of equality, considered generally and with particular reference to traditionally disadvantaged groups in society, such as women; and to a variety of forces which have an impact on the competitive ideal of elections, such as media control and money.
Clearly, the elections debate is no longer, if it ever was, a matter concerning only States in transition from conflict or from authoritarian forms of government; on the contrary, it is of growing relevance to all democratic systems now facing the internal challenges of alienation and distrust of the process.
The book will be of interest to all those involved in ensuring the quality of elections, including parliaments, election management bodies, providers of electoral assistance, electoral observers and election-related NGOs. It will also be a precious tool for scholars of international law and electoral systems.
