Basis of Challenges
Complaints and challenges based on the behaviour of political participants may result from the following:
- perceived intimidation of voters, voting station officials, or other political participants by party officials, candidates, or their representatives;
- campaigning at prohibited times and places;
- publicising false or misleading statements about voting procedures or other political participants;
- campaigning within voting stations;
- party or candidate representatives in voting stations attempting to influence voters or assist them to complete their ballots;
- party or candidate representatives in voting stations handling ballots or marking election material in an unauthorised fashion.
In carrying out their duties, voting station officials should be preventing such actions from occurring. However, where they have not, or there is collusion between political participants and officials, political participants and voters must have the opportunity to lodge and have resolved challenges to such actions. Immediate resolution may be available by lodging complaints at the voting station level and voting station managers removing such persons from voting stations, with the aid of security forces if necessary. Direction may be required from voting operations administrators for application of sanctions under the legal framework, including any legally sanctioned codes of conduct. (For further discussion of this issue, see Role of Party/Candidate Representatives, Breaches and penalties, and Training Party Representatives.)
Post-Voting Day Challenges
Challenges to election outcomes by voters, political participants, independent observers, and voting operations administrators may be based on complaints about intimidation or illegal influencing of voters and voting station officials by political participants (see Management of Challenges and Complaints). It is vital that all records relevant to complaints about political participant behaviour in and around voting stations, including voting station managers' records, party/candidate representative statements, security force records, statements from voters and independent observers, remain under strict security until any time limitations for election challenges has elapsed.
