Any country going through a democratic transition has to develop a strategy on its own. Such a strategy can follow one out of two available routes. In the first one, the importance of a new electoral law is fully evaluated as well as the impact of such an option on the legal system. Political parties debate the proposal in order to reach a sound understanding about it.

From a comparative point of view, the most successful cases are those in which a multi-party commission is empowered to draft the new law. A broad consensus opens up the most desirable route to begin the electoral process and the democratic transition.

However, this option has some practical setbacks with respect to the first elections organized at the beginning of the transition period. Some of such setbacks are worth being mentioned:

• First, this option can contribute to extend the powers of provisional authorities in charge. Such an extension cannot be good and may bring along serious consequences. It may extend the powers of provisional authorities, affecting both their legitimacy and the efficacy of the new regime.
• Secondly, a new law may produce an illusion. Such an illusion can be seen as a rather frequent event in transition periods, because political parties, which took a relevant role drafting the law, do not usually get an equivalent prominent role in the new regime. Therefore, the electoral legislation derived from the process can lack a real representative dimension.

The second route available would be to adopt a strategy aimed at shortening the legislative process. In such a case, the government usually decides to modify existent laws. Experts are commissioned to work on the matter using international support. This strategy too can face some setbacks, although:

• On one hand, as long as many important issues of the old regime can be preserved, legislative reforms can be either inadequate or inconsistent.
• On the other hand, electoral laws are not very easily reformed. It is not very simple to reform electoral laws in a deep way.

Bearing all this in mind, additional strategies can be explored as follows:

• This third approach can be described as a synthetic strategy in which the government enacts provisional rules aimed at regulating the undertaking of elections. Such regulation forces the elected Parliament to draft new electoral laws.
• Finally, we can talk about a gradual and slow-paced process that takes place in some locations. Such a process is aimed at political transitions and takes place by means of several elections which progressively introduce plural features reflected in law.