- Individuals sentenced for electoral fraud, a new category characterised as “... all persons who had supported anticonstitutional change, in violation of the principle of democratic change, notably in violation of of the principle of limitation of the number of terms of political presidential power, leading up to an uprising or any other form of upheaval.” 5. In practical terms, the adoption of such amendment of the law appears to have had the consequence of excluding from the electoral process persons affiliated to the ousted political power, the above-cited provisions having been interpreted as targeted at such persons. It was under such conditions that certain political parties and a number of Burkina Be seised the ECOWAS Court of Justice with their case, for the purposes of asking the Court to find that the new authorities violated their rights, and consequently, to order the revocation of the disputed legal provision. 6. The Applicants lodged two applications at the Registry of the Court, on the same date – 21 May 2015: a substantive application and an application for expedited procedure, in accordance with Article 59 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court. 7. An application for intervention was filed before the Court on the eve of the hearing of the case – 29 June 2015. The application originated from the law firm Falana and Falana’s Chambers. III – ARGUMENTS OF THE PARTIES 8. The Applicants aver that the new law adopted by the Burkina Faso Council of Transition violates their right to participate freely in elections. This right is notably provided for by the following texts: - Articles 2 (1) and 21 (1),(2) of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which provide respectively that : “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status (...) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, 4