Complementary to Guidelines recently adopted by the Venice Commission-OSCE/ODIHR, the Congress approved a new “Checklist for compliance with international standards and best practices preventing misuse of administrative resources during electoral processes at local and regional level” during its 32rd Session in Strasbourg.

 In his presentation on 29 March, Rapporteur Stewart Dickson (United Kingdom, ILDG) referred to the Congress’ general programme against corruption at the grassroots’ level and underlined that the recurring problem of misuse of administrative resources during elections which was a pressing issue in this respect. “Given the close links that exist in municipalities between incumbents, candidates, public employees and voters, the misuse of State resources during elections is a particular concern”, he stated. The new Checklist aims at identifying risk areas of potential misuse of administrative resources, assessing the implementation of the legal framework and drawing the attention of stakeholders to specific instances of misuse. 

Source: http://www.coe.int/t/congress/default_EN.asp?