The Legal Nature of Local Electoral Dispute: The Case of Slovenia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4335/17.4.1097-1128(2019)Keywords:
local electoral dispute, judicial protection of the right to vote, legal nature, court dispute, SloveniaAbstract
Local elections are elections of local self-government authorities established on the basis of exercise of the universal right to vote. The right to vote as a fundamental political right must be provided with relevant legal protection. Applicable to both national and local elections, voters' confidence in fairness of the electoral process and authenticity of election results are the foundation of the legitimacy of elections. A common requirement for electoral dispute system in countries, enforcing the rule of law, is that is supports credibility of the election process. This article looks into the legal nature of local electoral disputes in the Republic of Slovenia and investigates whether local electoral disputes are in their legal nature constitutional, administrative or sui generis court disputes. The characteristics of local electoral disputes are analysed on the basis of the following methods of scientific knowledge: logical (analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction), historical, systemic, and formally dogmatic. The author establishes the hypothesis of not one, but multiple forms of local electoral dispute, all of which differ significantly, their legal nature being essentially different as well. The article also, in this regard, considers constitutionality of Slovenian legal arrangement of individual forms of local electoral dispute.
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