Voting rights for electoral officials? —
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Voting rights for electoral officials?

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights protects the right of every citizen to vote and participate in public affairs. Restrictions to this fundamental principle are, according to the United Nations Human Rights Committee in its General Comment 25 on the right to vote, “subject only to reasonable restrictions". Common circumstances when the right to vote might be denied to a person could include instances such as: that the person had not attained the legal age of majority; that the person was resident in but not a national of the state where the elections were taking place; on the grounds of mental incapacity; or on the grounds of criminal conviction for a serious crime. Civil servants or officials deemed as holding crucial state-related functions such as the police and/or military might also be prohibited to partake in elections.
 
Furthermore, in Canada both the Chief Electoral Officer and his or her deputy are not entitled to vote. The argument for denying this right is that the electoral administration cannot under any circumstance be perceived to be deliberately influencing the process to the advantage of one or more contestants. Against a similar background, returning officers are not allowed to vote in Mauritius, while in Jamaica the Director of Elections is forbidden by legislation to vote.

The relevance of these legal exceptions to the universal right to vote is contested by the argument that the vote is the least powerful among all the tools in a Chief Electoral Commissioner’s, or other high ranking EMB official’s, possession. In other words, if a top EMB official would like to unduly influence the electoral process, there are many more powerful ways of doing this than through using his or her single vote. In this light, denying officials the vote could be seen as ineffective. On the other hand, the symbolic value of denying the Chief Electoral Commissioner the vote could have value in terms of signalling and communicating to citizens the impartiality and professionalism of the electoral administration, and as such be considered to be efficient and justifiable. In your opinion, is it suitable to prohibit leading electoral officials from voting?

N.B. The views of members of the ACE Practitioners' Network on this question can be read in the consolidated reply: 'Limited voting rights for electoral officials?'   

In your opinion, is it suitable to prohibit leading electoral officials from voting?

  • Yes
  • No
Total votes
196 people have voted on this poll.
Document Actions

Voting rights for electoral officials

Posted by Joao Almeida at Feb 06, 2012 10:30 AM
In my country we can say that people that is not entitled to vote cannot be an electoral official, but some of the electoral officials cannot be candidates.
Transparence is as important as independency - to look like independent on a non transparent basis is surely worse than to be known as committed and recognized as acting independently and with equity.

Voting rights for electoral officials

Posted by Beryl Aidi at Feb 10, 2012 12:40 PM
I think it is not good to deny electoral officials the right to vote on the basis of bias. Since voting in most places is by secret ballot, it is only the voter who knows whom he or she has voted for. Further, in my country, they ( electoral officials) take an oath of office where they pledge to be non-partisan and uphold the integrity of the elections, thus I do not see how they would influence the independence of the voters. In any case, many countries in Africa and even parts of the Middle East are smarting from bad elections, not because of the election officials' voting but bias from other quarters and allowing or even perpetrating electoral fraud. What would be of concern if members of an EMB had run or is running for an electoral position.

voting right of electoral officials

Posted by boguejiofor at Aug 14, 2013 01:14 PM
In my view, Electoral Official should be allowed to vote. This does not in any way comprise the electoral processes. In my country, there is no law that says that Electoral Officers should not vote, but most of the time, we don’t even vote because on the Election Day, we are involved in the process, you could be posted to work anywhere hence you may not vote because you can only vote where you registered.

voting rights of polling officials

Posted by SARAH BUKIRWA at Mar 03, 2014 03:23 PM
In Uganda we try to post polling officials to work on polling stations where they are registered so that they have the right to vote. this also helps at the time of opening the ballot box because the law says to open a ballot box it should be done in the presence of 5 registered voters of that centre. so in the case of a general election where we have multiple voting, we employ about 4 polling assistants and a presiding officer and a polling constable per centre. so even if the public does not come early to vote at least the required number to open a ballot box is present and polling can take place. in any case even polling agents are always present in time. so allowing polling officials to vote is god and serves 2 purposes at the same time and does not whatsoever compromise the polling process at all.

Voting rights for the electoral officials

Posted by Tseliso motiki at Mar 31, 2016 02:40 PM
It is democratic to allow the electoral officials to vote if they so wish,but the impact it has lies on the perception of the stakehoders,they may assiciate them with other parties and lack confidence and trust on their management of elections

Voting Rights for Electoral Officials

Posted by King Norman Rudi at Sep 14, 2015 08:05 PM
The duty of an electoral official is to administer the elections according to set standards.

Like any human being, the electoral officials have feelings too including political inclinations. However, what is critical is how they stand in the eyes of the public. Some may argue that they should not vote because that would mean they are siding with some party which they have voted for. Whether the person votes or not, but if that person is a supporter of a party it will remain so in the heart.

By allowing the electoral officials to vote, you are also instilling confidence in people that they should go and vote because no malpractice has happened. If the electoral official does not vote, some may speculate that they did so because they already staffed the ballots so they know who the winner would be.

Voting righs for Electoral Officials

Posted by Nchimunya Michelo Silenga at Mar 31, 2016 02:40 PM
Electoral Officers are citizens of that country and have as much right to vote for a leader of their choice as anybody else. It only becomes unethical if they publicly endorse a candidate as they are supposed to be impartial. Zambia allows officials to vote, it only becomes a challenge for the official if they are not working at the polling station at which they registered to vote, are too far from their polling station, lost their voters card or national ID which they must present to the presiding officer in order to receive a ballot paper.

Voting Rights of Electoral Officials

Posted by King Norman Rudi at Apr 21, 2016 02:25 PM
Electoral Officials have all the voting rights as enshrined in their Constitutions. The limitations to voting should be justified like not attaining voting age, being on death sentence, having violated the electoral role. Restricting election officials' voting rights will serve no purpose. As beings, they have the right to choose who should represent them and take an active role in choosing those leaders.