Algeria
On 7 February 2004, an organic law was adopted which amends and supplements the Order of 6 March 1997 establishing an organic law on the electoral system. The new provisions inter alia call for elections to take place under the responsibility of the administration, whose staff is expected to be strictly neutral. Vote counting must be public, and must take place in the assigned polling station, except for mobile polling stations, which "exceptionally" may count their votes at their assigned polling centres.

Argentina
In June 2003, an Order was adopted amending article 99, paragraph 4 of the Constitution. With this amendment, when a candidate to a post on the Supreme Court is proposed by the President, his or her personal record must be published so that the public can present relevant objections. The Senate has amended its Standing Orders accordingly.

Australia
On 8 September 2003, Senate Standing Order 74 was amended. The amendment related to the protection by parliamentary privilege of the process of asking and answering questions on notice. A resolution of the Senate on 30 October 2003 declared that the Senate and its committees would not entertain claims of commercial confidentiality unless they were made by a Minister and were accompanied by a ministerial statement of the basis of the claim, including a statement of the commercial harm which might result from the disclosure of the information. In June 2002 the Senate had adopted, as a temporary measure and for a trial period, a procedure whereby bills would not be considered in the Committee of the Whole unless a Senator circulated amendments to a bill or required that it be considered in committee. This procedure was incorporated into the Standing Orders on 3 December 2003.

Belgium
On 5 February 2004, a bill introducing various changes relating to election procedures was adopted at the parliament's plenary meeting. The bill covers elections to the Councils for the Flemish, Walloon and Brussels-Capital regions and for the German-speaking community. In particular, the changes restored alternate candidates, and lowered from 21 to 18 the age of eligibility for election to the Councils and for designation as members of the governments of the Flemish, Walloon and Brussels-Capital regions and of the German-speaking community. The changes also introduce an electoral threshold of five per cent for the distribution of seats among electoral lists taking part in an election.

Cambodia
On 10 January 2004, King Sihanouk accepted a request from Mr. Chea Sim, the President of the Senate, that the mandate of the Senate be extended for a year "to avoid a constitutional crisis". The Senate was established in March 1999 for an initial term of 5 years.

Canada
At the beginning of the third session of the 37^th Parliament in February 2004, the House of Commons approved a motion allowing the reinstatement of government bills during the first 30 days of the session, provided that the bills in question are in the same form as in the previous session and that the Speaker is satisfied that they are in the same form as agreed by the House of Commons at prorogation. In such cases, the bill shall during the current session be deemed to have been considered and approved at all stages completed at the time of prorogation of the previous session.
On 17 February 2004, the House of Commons agreed to amend its Standing Orders to change the names of two standing committees: the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights became the Standing Committee on Justice, Human Rights, Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, and the Standing Committee on Human Resources Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities became the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills Development, Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities.

Chad
On 26 May 2004 the National Assembly, by 123 votes for, none against and one abstention, adopted a constitutional amendment bill relating to eight articles of the Constitution. The revised articles stipulate that there will be no limitation on the number of terms a President may serve, thus eliminating a two-mandate limit that had previously existed. The Senate is replaced by an Economic, Social and Cultural Council, and the Head of State may, after a decision taken by the Council of Ministers, take the initiative to revise the Constitution. This amendment, which had to be approved by two-thirds of the 155 deputies, must now be passed in a referendum if it is to be definitively adopted. Deputies from the opposition groups in parliament, including the Fédération d'action pour la République, the Rassemblement pour la démocratie et le progrès (RDP) and the Union nationale pour la démocratie et le développement (UNDR), have brought an appeal before the Constitutional Court calling for this constitutional amendment bill to be overturned.

India
During the Thirteenth and Fourteenth sessions of the Lok Sabha (21 July 2003 to 5 February 2004), several amendments to the Constitution were adopted. The Constitution (Eighty-Seventh Amendment) Act provides for readjustment of territorial constituencies, including those reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, based on the 2001 Census, without affecting the number of seats allocated to the states in the legislative bodies. The Constitution (Eighty-Eighth Amendment) Act provides for levy of service tax by the Union and its collection and appropriation by the Union and the states. The Constitution (Eighty-ninth Amendment) Act and the Constitution (Ninetieth Amendment) Act deal with the provisions of bifurcating the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes into the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, and maintaining the existing representation of the Scheduled Castes and non-Scheduled Tribes, respectively, from Bodoland Territorial Council Area District in the Legislative Assembly of Assam. The Constitution (Ninety-first Amendment) Act provides that the total number of Ministers, including the Prime Minister, in the Council of Ministers shall not exceed fifteen per cent of the total number of members of both houses of parliament. Similarly, the total number of Ministers, including the Chief Minister, in the Council of Ministers in each state shall not exceed fifteen per cent of the total number of members of the legislative assembly of that state, provided that the number of Ministers, including the Chief Minister, shall not be less than twelve. It also provides that any member of either house of parliament or the legislative assembly or council of a state who is disqualified under the Anti-Defection Law enumerated in the Tenth Schedule shall also be disqualified from being appointed as a Minister.

The Representation of People (Amendment) Act was passed by parliament in July 2003 to do away with the requirement for candidates to reside in a particular state or union territory in order to contest an election to the Council of States from that state or territory. It also introduced an open ballot system for the election to the Council of States.

Indonesia
On 10 August 2003, the Annual Meeting of the People’s Consultative Assembly adopted the Fourth Amendment to the Indonesian Constitution. The amendment abolished the Supreme Advisory Body, an institution that had previously had the function of advising the President, and allocated 20 per cent of the national and regional state budgets for education.

On 11 March 2003, the House of Representatives approved the Law on the General Election. According to this new law, general elections are to be conducted in three stages. In the first stage, elections are held for the members of the House of Representatives (national level), for the regional representative councils and for the provincial or district houses of representatives; in the second stage, elections are held for the President and Vice-President, and in the third stage, a final round of elections is held for the President and Vice-President if, during the previous round, no candidate obtains 50 per cent of the votes, with a minimum of 20 per cent of the votes in half the Indonesian provinces. Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates are to be paired on a single ticket put forward by one or more political parties which have obtained at least 15 per cent of the seats in the national House of Representatives and 20 per cent of the popular vote.

Mali
With the municipal elections of 30 May 2004 approaching, on 30 January 2004 a law was adopted modifying the Electoral Act. Provisions were repealed which had allowed recently transferred public servants to be registered on voting lists just before an election, as were those relating to mobile and roaming polling stations. The modifications also established the composition of the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI), which includes 15 members, ten of whom are designated by the political parties. The Commission had formerly consisted of five representatives from majority parties and five from opposition parties. To take into consideration the current situation in which the opposition is much weaker, the ten posts set aside for the political parties of the majority and the opposition will in the future be "equitably" distributed. Other modifications call for disputes relating to candidacies to be settled by a civil judge, whose ruling will not be subject to appeal, and for rescheduling certain tasks, such as the distribution of voter registration cards prior to an election, which will now begin 30 days before the voting, instead of 25. The new law includes some important innovations, such as the transfer of competencies. In communal elections, all the competencies and prerogatives assigned to mayors by the Electoral Act are to be transferred to representatives of the State, including the handling of voter registration cards, the dropping off of ballots at polling places and the chairing of the committee which gathers ballots, counts votes and announces the outcome.

Pakistan
In December 2003, the Seventeenth Amendment Bill was passed by both houses of parliament and received the assent of President Pervez Musharraf. This Bill brought an end to a deadlock which had practically paralysed the parliament and created a schism in national politics for a year, by resolving the debate over the validity of the Legal Framework Order (LFO) enacted by General Pervez Musharraf in 2002. The Bill asserts the validity of the LFO, but also further amends the Constitution, with the effect of modifying certain provisions of the LFO. After obtaining the President’s assent, the amended LFO, through this constitutional amendment, became a part of the country’s Constitution.

The amendment gives the President the power to dissolve the National Assembly and to refer the matter to the Supreme Court within 15 days of its dissolution. The Court will decide the reference within 30 days, and its decision will be final. Through a similar amendment to Article 112 of the Constitution, in case of dissolution of a provincial assembly, the Governor is required to refer the dissolution to the Supreme Court, after obtaining approval from the President, and the Court will finally decide the matter within 30 days.

Another amendment now requires the President to appoint chiefs of services in consultation with the Prime Minister, whereas before the amendment, the President could do so at his discretion.

The Bill also grants immunity to President Musharraf for all acts committed since the military action on 12 October 1999, and accepts him as the elected President by allowing a vote of confidence from both houses of parliament and the provincial assemblies. The Constitutional amendment established that President Pervez Musharraf needed only to obtain a simple majority to win the vote of confidence, with only the votes of the members who were present and voting to be counted. The votes of absent or abstaining members would not be counted in the tally.

On 1 January 2004, President Musharraf won a vote of confidence in both houses of parliament and in four provincial assemblies. This will keep him in power until late 2007.

Republic of Moldova
On 25 July 2003, the Moldovan parliament adopted a law amending the Constitution. Article 73 was amended, granting the People’s Assembly of the autonomous territorial unit of Gagauzia the right to initiate legislation. Until then, only the members of the national parliament, the President of the Republic and the Government had the right to initiate legislation.

On 29 May 2003, the parliament adopted a law to amend its Rules of Procedure with the purpose of harmonising them with the legislation in force. It thus replaced the word "inquiry" with "criminal prosecution".

On 31 July 2003, the parliament adopted a law that introduced a new chapter in the Law on State Social Insurance Pensions. The amendment gives pension rights (42 per cent of the median monthly income) to those persons who were members of parliament or staff of the parliament during the twelfth legislature and those who served in the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Moldova.