CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2018
| Author | Chetaikina, Svetlana Alexandrovna |
|---|---|
| Title | The right to free elections and the design of electoral systems: experiences of Armenia, the Czech Republic, Italy and Turkey |
| Summary | The electoral system is a set of rules, according to which the votes are to be transmitted into the electoral outcome. In this paper I argue that protection of the right to free elections in examination of cases related to the design of the electoral systems requires a wider interpretation of the “free expression of the opinion of the people in the choice of legislature” (ECHR Article 3 of Protocol 1 – ‘P01-3’ or “the right to free elections”) and that this provision should mean that this choice is not manifestly distorted in the name of government stability or similar aims. I use examples from four jurisdictions to explore how judicial review may deal with questionable features of electoral systems. The research methodology largely relies on black letter law research. It includes the ECtHR jurisprudence as well as comparative study of constitutional court judgments of four chosen jurisdictions: Armenia, the Czech Republic, Italy, and Turkey. Special attention is paid to the Venice Commission’s opinions and other sources of Council of Europe’s soft law that have to do with electoral rights and electoral standards. Recognizing the institutional differences of the ECtHR, constitutional courts and the Venice Commission, the comparative analysis demonstrates that the ECtHR’s interpretation of the right to free elections has not yet extended the protection of electoral rights beyond participation in elections, to the distribution of mandates and resulting composition of the legislature. |
| Supervisor | Eszter Polgari |
| Department | Legal Studies LLM |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2018/chetaikina_svetlana.pdf |
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