1.2 Meaning and Nature of Election Law

Election law = the whole body of rules that makes the choice real: the franchise's definition (who votes), the candidacy's terms (who may stand), the system's design (how votes become seats — 1.6), the administration's machinery (who runs it — Unit 3), the campaign's discipline (the money, the speech, the conduct — Unit 5), and the justice's remedies (the disputes, the offences, the tribunals — Units 5-6). Its nature: a public-law hybrid — the constitutional layer (the constitution's own election articles), the statutory layer (the election code family), the administrative practice (the Commission's directives and the code of conduct), and the judicial gloss (the election jurisprudence — Unit 6's cases); a rights-and-powers mix (the citizen's vote as the right; the state's conduct as the duty); and a technology-facing discipline (the rolls, the machines, the social-media era).