ABSTRACT
It was the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) that first introduced election observation in Europe on an institutionalised basis. PACE has played a key role in the creation of Europe's electoral heritage. The Parliamentary Assembly launched the Venice Commission's initiative to draw up a set of guidelines for good practice in elections with the aim of combining the 'universal standards which set absolute minimum requirements or prohibit certain forms of conduct in order for elections to be considered free and democratic'. The Code is the most detailed legal instrument on electoral matters, albeit a soft law instrument, and is used by the Bureau's ad hoc committees for the observation of elections as a basis for their work. Despite the efforts made by the Parliamentary Assembly with regard to the organisation of democratic elections, the major challenge continues to be the fact that State actors still too often fail to apply electoral laws in good faith.
