ELECTIONS A woman marks her ballot during voting at the polling station in Erdenet for the 26 June 2013 presidential election in Mongolia. (OSCE/Agnieszka Rembowska) ƻƻ ƻƻ Greater awareness and attention to the issue of women’s participation and representation; and Increasing awareness of the importance of regulating and ensuring oversight of campaign finance. At the same time, several aspects continue to pose challenges in a number of the OSCE participating States. Some of the common shortcomings that require further attention include: ƻƻ Unequal application of legal regulations; ƻƻ Undue restrictions on suffrage rights; ƻƻ Inaccurate voter-registration systems, leading to non-universality or the inequality of voting rights, and possible malfeasance; ƻƻ Practices running contrary to the principle of separation between political parties and the State; ƻƻ Unequal access to the media and/or a lack of balanced media coverage of election contestants; ƻƻ Limitations on the rights of citizen and international observers; ƻƻ Lack of timely and effective legal remedy; and ƻƻ Dishonest counting and tabulation of votes. In recognition of the importance of dialogue and engagement on the conclusions of election observation, OSCE participating States have decided by consensus to follow-up on ODIHR’s election recommendations. Implementation of recommendations is, therefore, a commitment and responsibility of OSCE participating States. The political will to discuss and address recommendations remains a key and decisive factor in this process. In this respect, ODIHR welcomes the proactive approach demonstrated in 2013 by a number of OSCE participating States in reviewing and implementing recommendations. It is encouraging that a number of states have held governmental or parliamentary discussions on the recommendations provided by ODIHR, or even established working groups tasked with the elaboration of amendments to legislation on the basis of ODIHR recommendations. The practice of voluntary reporting by OSCE participating States before the OSCE Human Dimension Committee and at the Permanent Council is also a very useful mechanism that promotes further implementation of ODIHR recommendations and ODIHR Annual Report 2013  /   11