As the design of democratic electoral rules has received more attention with the rapid increase in the number of democracies after the break-up of the communist bloc, the external voting becomes more significant in the face of increasing migration. The key question related to this topic then is how people living outside their country of origin can have their political rights assured. The answer to this question can be based on few generally accepted principles that constitute essential elements when shaping the legal framework and the normative criteria which may relate to them:
External voting is then understood as ‘provisions and procedures which enable some or all electors of a country who are temporarily or permanently outside the country to exercise their voting rights from outside the territory of the country’.
Universal Suffrage
This argument is mainly based on different international declarations in which universal, equal, free and secret suffrage is recognized as an inalienable part of human rights (for example, the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 21; the 1948 American Declaration of Human Rights and Duties, article 20; and the 1969 American Convention on Human Rights, article 23). The basic idea is that every citizen has the right to participate in every direct election to representative state organs because the formal–judicial equality of all citizens is guaranteed by the law or the constitution. Although these documents do not mention external voting as an integral part of universal suffrage, it is often heard in our ‘globalized’ world that the principle of universal suffrage can only be fully achieved if citizens living abroad are entitled to vote in the national elections of their home country.
The notion
of external voting as part of universal suffrage is neither self-evident nor
unproblematic. The concept goes against one of the classic requirements for
voting rights and electoral laws written into national constitutions, as well
as into some international declarations of human rights—residency inside the
state territory. On the one hand, the recognition of the principle of universal
suffrage is regarded as a civil right, which can be realized by the widening of
political participation. On the other hand, external voting implies the
electoral participation of individuals who may not be directly affected by
whatever effects the result brings about. Furthermore, the implementation of
external voting involves major technical and administrative problems that might
interfere with other crucial features of the franchise, in particular the
principle of free elections.
Entitlement to vote
The right to vote externally may be limited to certain types of election. The institutional arrangements for external voting will depend first of all on who can be registered as an external elector. Various options are possible:
Electoral Justice
Issues of electoral justice such as the transparency of electoral registration, the equality of electoral competition, the legal conduct of the act of voting, and the control mechanisms to ensure all of these are essential in informing the process of decision on debating proposals to introduce or maintain external voting.
Transparency
Various procedures for external voting should be examined in the context of the fundamental principle of free, equal, secret and secure ballot. However, there is thus no ‘best procedure’ for external voting. Much will depend on the context, such as the infrastructure of those foreign countries where external voting is to be held. The decision on suitability will depend on the costs and practical aspects of the different procedures for external voting.
Transparency of external electoral registration and voting procedures as well as in electoral fraud represents one of the main challenges or organization of elections outside the national borders.
Equality of Political Competition
Ensuring that electoral procedures are free of influence by party interests may be a problem for countries which face challenges in organizing legitimate elections at home, especially if they have a great number of citizens not only living abroad but also concentrated in one single country. The electoral campaign may take place among external electors with no effective control by the administrative bodies of the home country. The possibility of interference by political actors which are not subject to the legislation of the home country aggravates the danger of the equality of electoral party competition being violated.
Legal conduct of the act of voting
Prevention of offences against the electoral law represents not only formal and legal difficulty but poses a serious challenge to a practical electoral organization. Countries which have external voting must come to terms with the fact that the freedom and security of the votes of their citizens cast abroad may not be guaranteed to the same extent as those cast inside the country. Electoral management bodies cannot fulfil their functions autonomously in foreign host countries.
Political Participation
One of the key principles of external voting is an endeavour to increase political participation which justifies the political effort involved in the financial costs of external voting. The participation has two functional dimensions: (a) contribution the popular vote makes to the creation of state institutions; and (b) importance of electoral participation to the legitimacy of the elected institutions. This principle, however, implies questions of transparency of external election process and dispute resolution of external voting.
Enhancement of the Legitimacy of the Democratic System
When citizens living abroad are claiming the right to vote, denying it may result in some loss of legitimacy. But it is equally important to bear in mind that an external voting process which is perceived as biased in favour of particular political interests or as chaotic may cause electoral events to lose legitimacy in the eyes of the domestic public. Political forces which would benefit would then be likely to deem external voting to be legitimate, while those who would suffer would be likely to take the opposite view. Under these circumstances, the legitimacy of the political system may be brought into question by the introduction of external voting.
