United Nations Parliamentary Assembly - Election Standards

Election Standards

A directly elected UNPA might have common election standards if it follows the example of European Parliament (EP). The European Parliament has adopted certain minimum requirements, such as proportional representation, that each member country must abide by to be represented. Schwartzberg proposes a professional election commission "to ensure that assembly elections are carried out, to the maximum extent, on a level playing field". Under Schwartzberg's proposal, the commission would have several powers, including the authority to establish rules of fairness, determine in advance whether fairness criteria were being met, and foreclose polling where those criteria were not met. He proposes criteria that an election must meet to be considered valid, such as minimum participation rates that initially could be set as low as 20%, and gradually increased.

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