The main rules governing an electoral regime have to be established at constitutional level. Under such scheme, inferior regulations must be enacted in order to develop constitutional rules’ content and application. Nowadays, there are no clear rules to follow in order to know which topics have to be included in the Constitution. Such a decision depends on many different conditions prevailing in every single country. Anyway, some of the topics commonly set down by constitutions are basic rules on the form of government, on how representative agencies must be integrated, on fundamental rights as well as on the legal devices which can be used to protect them, on the main principles governing the electoral system, on the main features distinguishing voting, on the existence of political parties and their internal regime (including topics such as funding, for instance), on the existence of electoral authorities and electoral courts, an on the kind of procedural rules that have to be followed.

According to the level of complexity of the rules used to reform the Constitution, and even though constitutions are usually intended to last for long periods in order to deliver certainty, rigid systems are distinguished from flexible ones nonetheless.

Some fundamental principles which can be included in the Constitution in order to ensure the undertaking of free, authentic and periodic elections in every country can be listed as follows: the right to vote is universal and has to be used in a free, secret and direct way; elections must be organized by an autonomous public agency; elections must be undertaken in a legal, independent, impartial and objective way; candidates and political parties must have an equal access to the media; every single electoral order has to be judicially reviewed in order to confirm its constitutionality as well as its legality.

A constitution must be seen as the main legal norm of any state, which implies that it is not only mandatory, but has to be enforced and honored as well. Electoral rules set down by constitutions are not an instance of wishful thinking, but legal norms that have to be obeyed by constitutional and democratic regimes. 

Likewise, since the constitution is the highest law within legal systems, it validates all the other norms within such legal systems. Constitutional rules and constitutional principles cannot be violated or ignored by non-constitutional norms. Any constitutional violation perpetrated by unconstitutional norms is null.

There are all different sorts of electoral authorities. However, constitutional autonomous institutions have often been established. Such institutions are usually the highest electoral authorities and are completely independent from any traditional branch of government.

In our days, the creation of constitutional tribunals has been privileged. Such tribunals have been empowered to directly interpret and adjudicate constitutional law. Bearing this in mind, since electoral topics have been constitutionally recognized, not only the creation of constitutional tribunals which are specialized on solving electoral disputes, but the extension of the powers of traditional constitutional tribunals to do so, seems to be reasonable.

Federal systems work under a double-leveled scheme. On one hand, federal constitutions develop the electoral topics that we have referred to for the federal level. On the other hand, even though states must use their legislative autonomy to enact electoral laws, they must nonetheless follow all electoral principles set down by the federal Constitution.

The inclusion of electoral topics in the Constitution does not mean that a new constitutional document has to be enacted. Such an addition can be undertaken enacting some strategic and specific reforms.