The Council of Europe's Venice Commission has published an urgent report on conditions and legal standards whereby a constitutional court could invalidate elections, responding to a request last month from Theodoros Rousopoulos, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
While the report draws on features from a recent case in Romania - concerning invalidating elections ex officio, digital technologies in electoral campaigns, and external influence by another State - it is not for the Venice Commission to go into the facts of the Romanian case, or into the examination of the decision by the Romanian Constitutional Court. The question put to the Venice Commission is of a general nature and refers to an analysis of general comparative constitutional law and European and international standards.
The report stresses that only under certain circumstances - and if multiple conditions and safeguards are met - can a constitutional court invalidate elections.
