No matter what the model or type of EMB, it needs to deal with the executive branch of government and the legislature on issues such as electoral law and budgets. It is a good practice for a multiparty committee of the legislature, such as the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters in Australia, to deal with EMB matters, and for a member of the Cabinet to handle all EMB issues in Cabinet and also to speak on its behalf in Cabinet and the legislature. For a Governmental Model EMB, the relevant minister would usually be from the department within which the EMB is located.

Unless an Independent or Mixed Model EMB also has somebody to speak on its behalf—a task which may be allocated to a specified minister—it is difficult for matters pertaining to the EMB to attract sufficient attention from either the legislature or Cabinet. For example, the arrangement in Namibia under which the speaker handles all EMB matters, including electoral law and the EMB budget, has in the past presented some problems for the EMB because the speaker is not represented in Cabinet, and Cabinet rules in Namibia state that proposals for legislation must first be presented to Cabinet by one of its members. A crisis over delays in electoral law reform in 2003 led to the appointment of a temporary ‘guardian’ minister to the EMB and a review of the relationship between the EMB and the Cabinet.