All election related documents should be available for public inspection at all levels of the election administration without payment of a fee or undue administrative burden.

The EU EOM considers it recommendable to promote and improve the level of institutional communication between the TSE and the Guatemalan citizens in general, especially the media and political organisations. Better communication will not only help to avoid occasionally groundless or unnecessary controversies, based on misunderstandings or faulty information, but will also contribute to bring greater transparency to the TSE’s operations, and in so doing strengthen the level of public trust in the TSE’s activities.

The EU MOE further recommends that information technology infrastructures be deployed to all of the TSE’s delegations and sub-delegations, to ensure that the entire electoral administration structure be able to employ a similar level of technological resources. Such measures could help to put an end to the unjustified regional imbalances that exist in the quality of the services that are provided by these local structures.

To guarantee its future success, it would be advisable that any extension in the polling station decentralisation process be carried out gradually. In this sense, the EU EOM estimates that the number of polling stations in 2011 should not exceed the current number by more than 10%.

All other electoral management officials at each level of the electoral administration, should be recruited transparently through public job vacancy advertisements free from political interference.

INEC meetings should be open to political parties and accredited observers. Agendas, minutes of its meetings and decisions should be published on its website in a timely manner.

Adequate funds should be provided to INEC to enable it to represent itself in the Courts of Law.

INEC should develop and adhere to a well thought through logistics and operational plan which guarantees the timely and accurate delivery and retrieval of polling materials to enable polling stations to open on time.

INEC should develop and use suitable hand-over documentation for sensitive polling materials (result forms, ballot boxes, ballot papers).

Financing regulations established by the Electoral Act 2006 should be fully enforced by INEC. Following the submission of annual financing returns by political parties, INEC should produce an audit report on the returns which should be made public.

In line with the Constitution, INEC should conduct a sound, transparent and inclusive constituency delineation exercise based on the 2006 census in good time before the next elections to uphold the principle of equal suffrage.

Effective measures should be developed and implemented to monitor abuse of state resources and ensure that perpetrators are held to account.

INEC should ensure that the Manual for Election Officials should be available in each polling station and followed closely.

INEC should ensure that the ballot boxes used in the 2007 elections are replaced by translucent, hard plastic ballot boxes with secure, numbered plastic seals.

The nomination of General Directors and Heads of Units of the Election Commissions (at national and provincial level) should be made through an open and competitive process based on merits and experience and not on party allegiances.

The role of the Election Coordinators should be reinforced and their numbers increased to strengthen/improve election preparations at polling station level. Furthermore, their role as a bridge between the Provincial Election Commissions and the Polling Station Committees should be defined and strengthened.

The Election Commission and the Electoral Tribunal should create mechanisms to ensure that there is a clear information flow from the national to lower level of election administration and vice versa.

The Electoral Commissions should ensure that all appointed polling station committee members receive appropriate and quality training. Sufficiently in advance of the Election Day, training should pay special attention to counting procedures and to procedures to fill in the election protocols. For this purpose, a permanent pool of qualified electoral trainers should be established.

The number of polling stations should be diminished, except when serving remote or isolated populations, thus reducing the number of polling station committee members needed. Simplified voting procedures and adequate training for all polling station committee members would make it possible for polling station committees to process a larger number of electors. In this regard, the maximum number of electors per polling station should be increased to 500, in accordance to article 36 of the Election Law.

The space provided to the polling station should increase and its perimeter should be clearly marked in order to avoid confusion and overcrowding on Election Day and secure the secrecy of the vote.

La MOE pense qu’il serait opportun d’engager rapidement une réflexion sur la possibilité de conserver les acquis importants de la CENI et de lui donner une forme permanente. La CENI pourrait ainsi intensifier ses activités en matière de sensibilisation et de supervision. Elle pourrait également se voir attribuer de nouvelles compétences (proposition de codification du droit électoral, mise à jour du fichier électoral, éducation civique permanente).

The independence of the Commissioners of the NEC from any political party influence should also be strengthened in order for them to undertake their responsibilities in overseeing and ensuring the credibility of future elections in an impartial manner.

Qualified staff at district level should be retained on a permanent basis to provide more professional structures. A permanent presence in the districts would enable NEC to further increase the capacity of NEC district offices and would enable key components of the election cycle such as voter education, continuous voter registration and training for constituency election officers to be more effective.

The decision of the NEC, not to recurit polling staff involved in irregularities during previous elections should be enforced. To ensure transparency in the recruitment of polling staff, lists of recruited staff should be published in order to allow political parties and citizens to challenge appointments.

A permanent budget should be established to ensure that the NEC can undertake all its activities for the preparation and oversight of elections. This budget should be subject to parliamentary approval.