For future elections all electoral arrangements should be considered and agreed in good time to avoid late finalisation and changes of the electoral arrangements and
the consequent lack of information to voters, candidates and observers.

Given the immense support by UNMIL to reach “inaccessible” voting precincts, appropriate and adequate provisions for future elections should be made for voting
by all registered voters in the vicinity in which they live, in accordance with basic international electoral standards of equal treatment, secrecy of the vote and
convenient provision of adequate polling places. A larger number of voting precincts, and possibly obile polling places, could improve voter turn out and
protect the secrecy of the vote.

The NEC, Magistrates and Election Supervisors should improve their financial conduct as polling staff and the wider public need to trust the NEC to conduct and administer peaceful and orderly elections.

Material provisions for polling places should be improved for future elections, especially the number and quality of torches, stamps and screens.

The NEC should rigorously verify the accuracy of the names and signatures provided and double check them with the FRR before publishing them in the
national gazette.

Adequate consideration should be given by the CNE to guarantee the protection of the sensitive data of voters and candidates stored for electoral purposes. The IT security applications used by the CNE to guarantee the security of the electronic voting system could be extended to all other sort of citizens’ sensitive information handled by the CNE.

The CNE should invest more financial and technical resources in the organization of its audit activities. Audit session should start considerably earlier in the process, with procedures elaborated and published well in advance to the commencement of such activities. Consideration should be given by the CNE to the establishment of two types of audits: public audits, starting two months before the elections, to be opened to all stakeholders, and full system audits, of the duration of various months, to be conducted by institutions with appropriate expertise and established reputation. The full system audits should accompany the entire system development process.

The user-friendliness of the VMs should be improved, especially when the complication of the electoral system and the number of electoral races is of a degree similar to the one of the Parliamentary Elections. The voters’ option to cast a blank vote should be made easier to use. The use of the fingerprint capturing machines as a mechanism to identify the voters at the polling station level and to prevent double voting should be postponed until a proper and secure identification program to provide all citizens of new ID card is in place.

Sri Lanka should honour the commitment it has made on the rights of migrant workers to vote, as specified in the International Convention on the Protection of the Right of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families1 (signed by Sri Lanka in 1996). Therefore a voting system should be introduced that allows Sri Lankan migrant workersand members of their families temporarily living abroad to vote for national elections. This should be enshrined in the law.

Certain procedural practices related to polling need to be improved through clear instructions and training of the polling staff. In particular: The checking all the fingers of every voter for signs of electoral ink; The secrecy of the vote must be improved by ensuring that all electoral staff understand the importance of the concept and the respective arrangements that need to be implemented in each polling station (i.e. paying particular attention to the positioning of the booth.

This is particularly relevant to any arrangements which require a Palestinian- Israeli agreement, as this proved to be extremely time consuming and problematic.

It is imperative that the electoral process in East Jerusalem is conducted in an equal manner as far as possible in comparison to the other electoral constituencies. Whilst it is understood that Annex II of the Declaration of Principles may still be relevant, it is hoped that good will and common sense will prevail in this respect to prevent a recurrence of the problems which characterised the process in Jerusalem in both 1996 and 2005.

Proper, reasonable and adequate provision must be made for voting by all registered voters in the vicinity in which they live, in accordance with basic international electoral standards of equal treatment, secrecy of the vote and convenient provision of adequate polling places.

Regular electoral officials should be permitted to oversee the proper conduct of the election, possibly in a supervisory role so that problems can be properly
addressed.

Further, the suggested changes to CEC and DEC procedures (see below) would add extra safeguards in this respect.

The EUEOM also wants to stress that there is no requirement for the CEC to resign following an election. There is no legal imperative for this and it would
bring into question the independence of the body.

There should be no changing the rules of the election on the day of the election.

The CEC should consider allowing a limited number of relevant stakeholders (such as political party representatives, observers) to attend formal meetings of the
CEC and DECs.

Develop external guidelines, with a more detailed explanation in the election law of how media should cover the election campaign in order to provide balanced
coverage for the public. This can help define:
- Right to reasonable access and fair treatment for all election contestants, particularly with regards to the official media.
- Duty to provide fair and professional editorial coverage (news, debates, etc.) on behalf of all electronic and official media.
- Any potential conflict of interest (i.e. candidates owning media outlets,
journalists running as candidates, advantage of the incumbent government.
etc.).

The CEC should ensure that it improves its handling and scrutiny of the various stages for production and distribution of the sensitive election materials, such as
the printing and delivery of ballots.

Polling Staff training should focus on the following critical technical aspects:
o The importance of checking the ink on voters’ fingers prior to voting;
o The correct application of the ink;
o The importance of the layout of polling stations for a full protection of the secrecy of the vote.

Conditions for a genuine multi-party campaign in all parts of the country need to be ensured.

The composition of the election commission could be reviewed. The legal provision for inclusion of representatives of the parties in Parliament has resulted in an overly politicized process for tasks which, though having political repercussions, are technical in nature. While the inclusion of political party representatives is useful in increasing transparency, consideration should be given to complementing party representatives, e.g. with more representatives from civil society selected according to clear criteria and procedures.

Decision making could also be modified, for example by abandoning the current majority system for some other formula.

Consideration should be given to ensure the continuity of the work of the CPEs.