The Charter commits the parties to applying basic rules guaranteeing the political, administrative and financial independence of local authorities.
The Congress conducts two main activities so as to evaluate the Charter's implementation: local and regional election monitoring and observation.
In Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, local elections have proven to be easier to achieve than larger scale ones that affect the national or federal government.
In the United States there is an increasing demand for electoral reform, including a call for instant-runoff voting to be used to select all major executives.
Such a ballot reform is often a complement to moving towards a "strong mayor" system, such as in Baltimore, Maryland, or as recently advocated in Oakland, California.