In determining whether a permanent or temporary EMB is appropriate, electoral workloads throughout the electoral cycle need to be considered and compared to the expense of maintaining a permanent institution versus the expenses and time required to establish a new body for each election. In situations where electoral events are regularly occurring – such as regular partial or by-elections and continuous voter registration – or there are needs for continuing electoral development work, such as on-going voter education, or advocacy of electoral law reforms, a permanent electoral institution is justifiable.

Some countries have EMBs which exist during the election period only. Such EMBs may follow the Independent, Governmental, or Mixed Models. In some cases, the Governmental Model EMB needs to be temporary, because the public servants who run elections have other full-time duties and are redeployed to the EMB during election periods only. However, some countries with a Governmental Model EMB, such as Sweden, maintain a small skeleton staff to take care of electoral issues between elections, including updating the electoral register. In some Mixed Model EMBs, the governmental component is permanent, to preserve institutional memory, while the Independent Model component is temporary during election periods.

Some countries whose EMBs follow the Independent Model have permanent central EMBs which coexist with temporary subordinate EMBs at the district or local levels; depending on their responsibilities and on the logistics required, the latter structures are appointed anywhere from two to six months before elections.

There are many phases to the electoral process: in an election, for example, these include the design and drafting of legislation, the recruitment and training of electoral staff, electoral planning, voter registration, the registration of political parties, the nomination of parties and candidates, the electoral campaign, polling, counting, the tabulation of results, the declaration of results, the resolution of electoral disputes, reporting, auditing and archiving. After the end of one electoral process, it is desirable for work on the next to begin: the whole process can be described as the electoral cycle, illustrated in figure 2.

In determining whether a permanent or temporary EMB is appropriate, workloads throughout the electoral cycle need to be considered, and the expense of maintaining a permanent institution has to be compared with the expense and time required to establish a new body for each election. Where a temporary EMB appears appropriate, it is important to consider how institutional memory relating to elections will be maintained. In situations where electoral events occur regularly—such as regular partial or by-elections and continuous voter registration—or continuing electoral development work, such as ongoing voter education and information or advocacy of electoral law reforms, is needed, a permanent electoral institution is justifiable.

Countries that maintain permanent EMBs: 

• Armenia

• Australia

• Brazil

• Canada

• Indonesia

• Mexico

• the Philippines

• South Africa

• Thailand

Some countries have EMBs which exist during the election period only. Such EMBs may follow the Independent, Governmental or Mixed models. In some cases, the Governmental Model EMB has to be temporary because the public servants who run elections have other full-time duties and are redeployed to the EMB during election periods only. However, some countries with a Governmental Model EMB, such as Sweden, maintain a small skeleton staff to take care of electoral issues between elections, including updating the electoral register. In some Mixed Model EMBs, the governmental component is permanent to preserve institutional memory, while the independent component is temporary and is set up only during election periods, as in Togo.

Countries such as Bulgaria, Georgia, Niger, Romania and Russia, whose EMBs follow the Independent Model, have permanent central EMBs which coexist with temporary subordinate EMBs at the electoral district or local levels. Depending on the responsibilities of the subordinate EMBs and on the logistics required, these structures are appointed from two to six months before polling day. Until recently, Bulgaria and Romania did not have permanent EMBs even at the national level. Permanent EMBs were created following encouragement from the Association of Central and Eastern Euro­pean Election Officials (ACEEEO) and the recommendation of Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) election observer missions that such structures would enhance institutional memory and operational continuity.