Parties and movements should make an additional effort to appoint party/movement agents to oversee the election process. These party agents should receive proper training in order to understand their role in the process.

The TSE should develop more efficient means to pay the members of the polling stations committees.

Measures should be taken to increase the transparency during the tabulation process, such as the publication of election results protocols by polling station, and not only by provinces, cantons and parishes. Provisional results should also include the allocation of already decided seats, only leaving aside tied results or still undetermined seats by any other motive.

Clear and updated information should be available to political parties, observers and media on the number of and reasons for any recounts made during the tabulation process.

The regulatory power of the election administration should be limited to clarifying and interpreting already existing election legislation and not regulating issues which do not correspond to its established competencies.

Suspension of political rights should be handled differently, guaranteeing due process to defendants before independent and impartial courts. The suspension should be applied as a specific sanction and not as mere accessory sanction after an appropriate evaluation of the case.

Infringements of laws and regulations concerning the electoral campaign should be subject to effective and proportionate sanctions. In particular, an appropriate range of disciplinary action should be provided for by law.

The Election Commissions should be responsible for issuing administrative sanctions. The Electoral Tribunals should be responsible for dealing with penal sanctions. The responsibility of each of the branches should be clearly established by law.

Efforts should be made to ensure that the complaints and appeals system is transparent and publicly accountable. A centralised record of all complaints and appeals, grounds for the complaints and appeals and their outcome should be developed and maintained. These records should be regularly made public.

Particular attention should be paid to establishing and enforcing appropriate mechanisms for challenges/appeals against decisions related to inaccuracies in the voter register.

Safeguards should be introduced to ensure that electoral authorities do not interfere in the judicial process/the independency of the judiciary as established in the Constitution.

The TSE should promote the adoption of a code of conduct for all parties and candidates, including as well government and other officials, which would outline a formal agreement to obey to the established rules or regulations for the campaign period and Election Day.

All the information provided by political parties and movements to the TSE about their campaign expenditure should be made public. Moreover it would be positive to pass a common regulation regarding the financing of both parties and movements.

The TSE should strengthen efforts to promote voter education in indigenous languages, including radio spots235. Similarly, electoral training should be given in indigenous languages for provinces and cantons where indigenous populations represent an important segment of the population. For this purpose increased cooperation with government institutions (CODENPE) and NGOs would be recommendable.

Political parties should make more efforts to campaign in indigenous languages.

Political parties should engage more in training women candidates and in nominating female members at the higher levels of the election administration.

The national and provincial governments should take greater steps to suspend official publicity during the electoral campaign. By doing so the Ecuadorian government would be adhering to international best practices dealing with the subject as well as bringing an end to speculation regarding the abuse of state resources.

A complete review and consolidation of the legal provisions relating to elections into a single act should be undertaken to bring them fully in line with international standards for democratic elections. Particular attention should be paid to introducing essential transparency requirements to ensure public accountability of all components of the election administration. This process should include:
a. Introduction of legal provisions that guarantee full transparency of all components of the election process. All elements of the elections should be open to public scrutiny and the administration should be required to maximise the transparency of its activities by law.
b. Stipulation that the work and all meetings of the ECK are public and accessible to accredited observers, media and party or candidate representatives.
c. Removal of section 5 of the Constitution that requires each party to nominate a presidential candidate to qualify to put forward candidates for election.
d. Introduction of provisions to enable independent candidates to stand for election.
e. Inclusion of detailed provisions for the conduct of a second round of a presidential election.
f. Incorporated of legal provisions to promote women’s participation in the electoral process, especially as candidates.
g. Procedures to nominate the 12 appointed members of Parliament should be drafted in detail on the basis of the 1997 Inter-Parties Parliamentary Group (IPPG) agreement.
h. Introduction of more control and more transparency in the financing of political parties and of electoral campaigns. In this context, the 2007 Political Parties Act should be put into force and implemented as soon as possible.
i. Inclusion of clear and detailed provision defining the exact duration of the electoral campaign period.
j. Provision of detailed regulations regarding the printing of ballot papers, design, format, security and destruction of the ballot paper matrix to avoid possibilities of misuse and illegal printing of ballot papers.
k. Establishment of a framework to enable the electoral code of conduct to be enforced in an impartial manner.
l. Revision of the dispute resolution system in order to provide for a prompt response to any complaint submitted during the course of the electoral process. Installing a specialized Kenya Electoral Dispute Adjudication Board.
m. Establishment of a specialised electoral tribunal to rule on complaints and petitions within the limited period of time frame of elections.

The ECK should review the structure of its organization in order to strengthen and develop the capacity of its middle management and its secretariat.

The ECK should (i) develop a clearer system of result forms to be completed at each level of the election process, (ii) stipulate that copies of these forms should be made available to persons legally present at the election related venue, (iii) stipulate that these forms should be publicly displayed at every level of the election administration, and (iv) ensure that results are published by polling station at the constituency level and on the ECK website.

A comprehensive review of constituency delimitation to ensure compliance with the constitutional and international principle of equal representation of the voters should be undertaken.

Greater investment in voter education should be considered to ensure voters are fully aware of their rights and informed about all components of the election process.

Cooperation between the ECK and the Registrar of the persons should be improved and civil registration should take place at the constituency level in order to allow the ECK to produce voters’ lists, which are extracts from the national voter register for a particular polling station.

Clear and detailed provisions should be drafted to define the maximum number of registered voters per polling station.

The voter lists for the polling stations should contain a place for the voter to sign or put down a thumb mark as a safeguard against ballot paper stuffing. ECK regulations should stipulate counting the voters’ signatures on the voter lists and reconciling this resulting total with the number of ballot papers in the ballot boxes.