[EL] Election litigation abroad: Prime Minister resigns after the first ever Slovenian campaign finance trial

[Jurij Toplak]

For those interested in election litigation abroad:


In Slovenia the Supreme Court ruled in its first ever campaign finance case. It was also the first ever public trial of the Supreme Court of Slovenia since the independence of this country.


In a referendum held in September 2017, voters supported a large railway project by 53 percent of the votes.  One voter disputed the referendum results. He brought the case to Slovenia's Supreme Court, arguing that the government had an unfair advantage in the referendum because it used public funds, public media, and numerous other state resources to support a campaign in favor of the railway project. I helped him and we argued that the government acted contrary to the Council of Europe's Code of Good Practice on Referendums, which requires governments to assure balanced coverage of both campaigns.

The court agreed that the government's campaign was inadmissibly one-sided and annuled the referendum results. A few hours later the Prime Minister resigned.

This was the first time that results of the vote were disputed, and first time ever that an election law trial took place. And first time ever that the Supreme Court had a public trial on any issue, because this is just an appeals court and never holds trials.

Until now, regardless of the breaches of the rules, the courts have always quickly dismissed all the election-related complaints. This court ruling is a clear message to all candidates and to the election authorities that from now on, rules need to be followed and the court will no longer tolerate breaching of the election rules.

Jurij Toplak, professor of law

University of Maribor


http://www.dw.com/en/slovenia-prime-minister-miro-cerar-resigns-over-court-ruling-on-referendum/a-42981064


https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/15/world/europe/slovenia-prime-minister-miro-cerar-resigns.html

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