Читать книгу The Constitution of the Czechoslovak Republic - Vaclav Joachim - Страница 9
THE ELECTORAL COURT.
Оглавление(Act of Parliament of 29. Feb. 1920 No. 123 in the Code of Laws and Regulations.)
The Electoral Court is composed of a president, 12 assessors and the requisite number of permanent officials.
The premier president for the time being of the Supreme Administrative Court acts as president. The permanent officials are appointed by the president and taken from the staff of the Supreme Administrative Court. The assessors are elected by the Chamber of Deputies (the original idea of allowing the Senate to elect a part of the assessors was abandoned, for the small number of the assessors made it impossible properly to apply the principle of proportional representation). All citizens of the Czechoslovak Republic who are versed in law, who have attained the age of 40 years, who have been Czechoslovak citizens for at least ten years and have not lost their right to vote are eligible for this post. Members of the Electoral Court may not become members of parliament nor members of any County Council (Council of a župa).
The Electoral Court is the exclusively competent authority:
1. to decide appeals against the decision of the Revising Committee in accordance with the law dealing with the Standing List of voters.
2. to examine into and confirm the validity of elections of members of the National Assembly and County Councils (Councils of the župy)
3. to decide appeals respecting elections to the National Assembly, County Councils and County Commissions and committees;
4. to decide whether a member of the National Assembly or County Council has forfeited his seat for
a) having lost the right to be elected; b) having lost his membership of the party whose candidate he was and that for some disreputable and dishonourable cause.
Appeals must be made in writing within 14 days of the date on which the decision of the Revising Committee is made known to the appellant, or of the last date, on which the revised list of voters was on view, or of the date of the official announcement of the final result of the election: the appeals must bear the signature of a lawyer.
Appeals are conducted under a system of proceedure in which the parties participate by question and answer, and in general a full bench of the Electoral Court delivers judgment after the case has been conducted orally and in public. (Plaints, however, relative to the lists of candidates may be decided on the motion of the President of the Electoral Court, by a Commission consisting of the President, 3 assessors and a permanent official).
The Electoral Court in its finding states to what extent the election is annulled and, according to circumstances, designates the person who is elected in place of the member whose election has been declared invalid.
The presenting of plaints and documents relative thereto as well as all procedure is exempt from the payment of fees and stamps.