holds that Article 13(1) of the Charter is not violated simply by reason of the fact that the President makes the appointment of the Director of Elections on the basis of recommendation(s) by the Electoral Commission. 80. In respect of the Applicants’ allegation that section 6(1) of the NEA “lacks the criteria for the appointment of the Director of Elections and thus, makes it wide, broad and vague, and subject to abuse”, the Court observes that, indeed, section 6(1) does not allude to any qualifications that an appointee for the position must possess in order to qualify for appointment. Admittedly, article 74(3) of the Constitution delineates persons who are not eligible for appointment as commissioners. In the same vein, article 74(14) of the same Constitution prohibits persons “concerned with the conduct of elections” from joining any political party. Apart from these two negative prescriptions, the NEA has no provision which positively stipulates the qualifications that a potential Director of Elections must possess to be eligible for appointment. 81. The question that must be resolved, therefore, is whether the lack of a requirement stipulating the qualifications and attributes of individuals who can serve as Director of Elections violates the Charter. If the Court finds that the preceding amounts to a violation of the Charter it must, additionally, resolve the question whether or not this is a permissible limitation on the right to participate freely in one’s government. 82. The Court observes that given the centrality of electoral processes to the maintenance of democratic governance, an electoral management body occupies critical space in a country’s democratic architecture. It is of utmost importance, therefore, that an electoral management body should be legally and practically empowered to perform its duties in an independent and impartial manner. One important component to ensuring that an electoral management body performs its functions independently lies in the manner in which its staff is recruited. As a general rule, recruitment of staff for an electoral management body should be guided by transparent recruitment processes based on the possession of necessary qualifications for 23