Electoral registration should be reviewed in line with international standards and practices. In this connection a census would be a very useful pointer.

The question of issuance of National Registration cards (identity cards) has to be tackled seriously. A consistent plan should be proposed to bring about an adequate and final solution to the problem in providing a full support to the Department of National Registration. The Department of National Registration still seems to be under-equipped and to suffer from a lack of methodology and management capacity. Some kind of technical assistance to be provided to this office should be proposed and discussed.

A related issue to that of voter rolls is that of availability, conservation and replacement of identity cards. This has been a serious problem in the past, and may again be as serious and costly in the near future. (…) The punching of identity cards has most likely created a new problem –and a very costly one– without necessarily being the main solution to the problem it was meant to solve, that of double voting.

To consider the adoption of a system of an annual review of voters’ lists.

The register of voters should be maintained and regularly updated. The production of such a voter register could also take advantage of the upcoming national census.

The voting register requires further improvement and updating. It was further observed during polling day that polling staff experienced difficulties finding voters names on the register particularly when the voter did not carry the slip given to them by political parties. This resulted in long queues at busy polling stations. As the register is now computerised, names should be listed in a uniform way to facilitate staff in finding the respective names of voters.

Préciser sur les cartes électorales le bureau de vote dont relève chaque électeur et publier bien à l’avance la liste et les adresses des bureaux de vote

Immediate steps should be taken to implement a permanent and centralised voter register. The maintenance of the voter register should not be devolved to the provincial
KPU, but remain under the control of the central KPU.

Voters’ register: o The procedure for updating the voters’ register should be amended in order to include young and first time voters as soon as they become eligible.
o A complete computerization of the voters’ register would considerably increase its quality, thus allowing the deletion of duplicate registrations and making the
updating process easier.
o A reliable registration of voters in the LTTE controlled areas in the North and in Jaffna should be conducted.

There must be a full and inclusive registration of Palestinian voters in Jerusalem, with clear information provided as to where they will vote on election day.

Registration should be systematised to reduce the potential for the work of enumerators to go un-checked. This requires development of training, accountability and monitoring of the work of Grama Niladahri, Special Enumerators or others tasked to do the ground-level data collection. Furthermore public consciousness should be raised about the importance of keeping a registration receipt (as proof of registration) and of the checking of entries during the display period.

The fundamental deficiencies in the voter registration system should be addressed as a matter of urgency. This can be implemented by either using census data (1) or developing the active system of registration currently in use. (1) Introducing a passive system of registration based on census data: the data is in electronic form and is currently collected every 10 years. To provide an adequate basis for a voter list, the census would need to be rolling or updated every year. (2) If the system of an on-going active registration is maintained, rather than creating an entirely new register each year, the one from the previous year should be used as a basis from which adjustments (additions/deletions) are made.

When national identity cards have been issued to all citizens, the law should be amended so that all voters are required to produce their card in order to cast their ballot.

In future elections, refugees residing outside the country should be provided with the possibility of registering to vote. IDPs who opt to repatriate to their counties of
origin should be assisted by national and international authorities to repatriate in advance of an election

Before the next general elections, a civil register should be established through the conduct of a national census. The census will be necessary for the issuing of
national identification cards and together with the established FRR of 2005 will form the basis from which a new voter registration roll can be created and updated

A vast number of Lebanese citizens in the diaspora are still registered in Lebanon. This leads to uncertainties about the actual numbers of voters. This question should be carefully studied in order to find an adequate and balance solution taking into acount that some countries allow out-of-country voting for their citizens living abroad.

The voter registration process should be carried out exclusively by the CNE and the CREs. This would serve to reinforce the independence and neutrality of the election process, and would also have advantages in terms of cost efficiency. Should this measure be adopted, CREs would need to be provided with increased capacity to enable them to update the voter register on a regular basis.

Mobile voter registration units should be used to reach voters who are unable to reach stationary locations. Special provision could also be introduced to register the homebound, hospitalised and, possibly, voters living abroad.

While an eventual goal of the government could be the introduction of an effective civil register from which the voter register can be extracted, voter registration in the meantime should be conducted on a continuous basis.

Ahead of the next formal update of the voter register, the SCER should implement an open and cross-party review of the voter register to identify ineligible names using published and consistent criteria. Persons identified by the review as being wrongfully included should be informed and provided with the opportunity to prove their eligibility. The SCER should remove all ineligible names using methods prescribed by law.

Greater efforts to ensure accuracy in registration should be made to prevent errors and multiple entries. This should include individual registration only and cessation of practices allowing members of households to register other members of their families except in cases where this is justified on health or physical grounds. An adequate mechanism for maintenance and audit of the register should also be established, taking into account available technologies.

Identification requirements for voter registration should be improved in cooperation with the implementation of a national census or civil registry. The majority of Guinean citizens do not hold an identity card or birth certificate. Registration of voters, mainly in rural areas, is generally only made possible with the use of witnesses. The AFIS project could also be considered as a tool for civil registry.

Overall voter registration activities should be under the exclusive control of the Election Management Body. Shared institutional responsibility between the government and the independent election body creates areas of friction and has the potential to impair the CNEs capacity to independently conduct the polls. For instance, the CNE, the supervisory body with overall responsibility for organizing elections, does not have the legal mandate to manage the critical voter registration process which falls under the responsibility of the Government. Changes to the law should be introduced to allow the CNE control of the entire cycle of production of the voters’ list alongside the introduction of a systematic and permanent yearly voters’ update as foreseen in the electoral law. The CNE and CREs should have full mandate to carry out all voter registration hence strengthening its independency and the neutrality of the register. CRE’s would need to have a permanent structure in order to allow for full electoral cycle activities.

An extensive review of the voter register and the voter register exercise should be undertaken. Digital technology with photographs and any other relevant identification should be developed. More adequate safeguards should also be introduced during registration to ensure minors of other individuals that are not eligible to vote are excluded from the register. A greater period of time should also be planned for public exhibition of the register and a permanent registration process should be considered.

Una vez concluido el periodo de verificación, el nuevo CNE debería realizar las correcciones necesarias y nuevamente publicar el padrón electoral a nivel cantonal o parroquial, al menos 15 días antes de la jornada electoral.