Vill.
REPARATIONS
264. The Applicants pray the Court to find a violation of the abovementioned human
rights instruments, to order the Respondent State to amend, before any election,
Law N° 2019-708 of 5 August 2019 on the recomposition of the IEC and to make
it compliant with the aforementioned instruments to which it is a party as well as
to order a time limit within which it is to execute this order at the expiration of
which it will submit a report for the observation of the Court.
265. The Respondent State avers that the Applicants’ prayers should be dismissed.
266. Article 27(1) of the Protocol stipulates that: "[i]f the Court finds that there has been
violation of ahuman or peoples' rights, it shall make appropriate orders to remedy
the violation, including the payment of fair compensation or reparation."
267. The Court found that with regard to the manifest imbalance of the number of
Chairpersons of the Local electoral commissions
proposed by the ruling party,
following Bureau elections based on the previous law when the electoral body at
the
Local
levels
was
still
imbalanced
in
favour
of
the
Government,
Respondent State did not fully comply with Article 17 of the ACDEG
3 of the ECOWAS
Democracy
Protocol,
and therefore,
the
and Article
the Respondent
State
violated these provisions.
268. For this reason, the Court orders the Respondent State to take the necessary
measures before any election to ensure that new Bureau elections, based on the
new composition of the electoral body, are organised at the Local levels.
269. Furthermore, the Court found that the Respondent State has not fully complied
with its obligations to ensure public trust and transparency in the management of
public affairs as well as effective citizens’ participation in democratic processes
as prescribed under Article 3(7), Article 3(8) and Article 13 of the ACDEG;
nor
with its obligation to ensure that the electoral body has the confidence of all the
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