Page:The Constitution of the Czechoslovak Republic.pdf/11

 the burgomaster’s office either officially or by the party affected, at least ten days before the election takes place.

Elections take place—on the basis of the revised lists published at the end of January—between February 1 and July 31: on the basis of the revised lists published at the end of July, between August 1 and January 31.

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 proceedureprocedure [sic] in which the parties participate by question and answer, and in general a full