Constitutions and Election Management

This chapter examines the constitutional requirements for electoral management bodies. One of the challenges of democratic governance is the enforcement of electoral results. Perversely, governing parties, who have powerful incentives to remain in power, typically control the legal framework, which administers elections and electoral disputes. One way to insulate electoral law from manipulation by incumbents is to entrench it in higher law. Constitutions increasingly speak to the administration, adjudication, and enforcement of elections. This chapter sets out to provide guidance to constitutional drafters about how far, if at all, have constitutions regulated elections and then to see whether the “constitutionalization” of electoral management bodies is associated with greater electoral integrity.