The Mixed Model of electoral management usually involves two component EMBs and a dual structure:
- a policy, monitoring or supervisory EMB that is independent of the executive branch (like an EMB under the Independent Model) and
- an implementation EMB located within a department of state and/or local government (like an EMB under the Governmental Model).
Under the Mixed Model, elections are organized by the component governmental EMB, with some level of oversight provided by the component independent EMB. The Mixed Model is used in France, Japan, Spain and many former French colonies, especially in West Africa, for example Mali and Senegal.
The powers, functions and strength of the component independent EMB in relation to the component governmental EMB vary in different examples of the Mixed Model, and the classification of a particular country as using this model is sometimes not very clear. In the past, the component independent EMB was sometimes little more than a formalized observation operation, although this version is dying out, having been abandoned, for example, in Senegal. In other cases, the component independent EMB supervises and verifies the implementation of electoral events by the component governmental EMB, and tabulates and transmits results, as in Congo (Brazzaville). In some Francophone countries, the Constitutional Council is engaged in the tabulation and declaration of results and can be considered a component independent EMB within the Mixed Model. In Chad, this applies to referendums only, and not to elections. In Mali, where elections are organized by the Ministry of Territorial Administration, both the Independent National Electoral Commission and the Constitutional Court undertake their own tabulation of results; the country thus has three component EMBs (one governmental and two independent).
International IDEA’s 2014 survey of electoral management in 217 countries and territories worldwide showed that 63 per cent followed the Independent Model, 23 per cent the Governmental Model and 12 per cent the Mixed Model (the remaining 2 per cent corresponds to countries that do not hold national-level elections).
The relationship between the component EMBs in a Mixed Model is not always clearly defined in legislation or practice, and friction can result. In the 1999 elections in Guinea (which used the Mixed Model at that time), the majority and opposition representatives in the component independent EMB had conflicting approaches to its role in supervising and verifying the elections; thus its effectiveness was heavily disputed.
