ACDEG;
nor with
its obligation
to ensure
that the
electoral
body
has
the
confidence of all the political actors, as prescribed by Article 3 of the ECOWAS
Democracy Protocol. Accordingly, the Court found a violation of these provisions.
259. However,
the
Court
notes
that
the
remaining
manifest
imbalance
of the
Chairpersons of the Local electoral commissions relates to the implementation of
the law and not to the content of the law.
260. The Court further notes that the absence of an appropriate mechanism to appoint
members of the electoral body from civil society and political parties, particularly
opposition parties, does not necessarily require an amendment of the impugned
law. Such a mechanism could also be established through other measures.
261. The Court recalls its earlier jurisprudence in the matter of APDH v Céte d'Ivoire
(interpretation), where it held that it is not the Court’s responsibility to decide how
to make the law governing the electoral body compliant with the relevant human
rights instruments, that is the responsibility of the Respondent State. Instead, the
Court
can
only
interpret
the
relevant
human
rights
instruments
and
consider
whether the law on the electoral body is in violation with those instruments or not.
In the
instant
demonstrated
standards
case,
the
Court finds
that the impugned
provided
by the
that the Applicants
law on
relevant
the electoral
human
rights
have
body
not sufficiently
fails to meet
instruments
to which
the
the
Respondent State is a Party.
262. Regarding the obligation to execute the judgment within the stipulated time, the
Court notes that the procedure to interpret the Court’s earlier judgment may help
explain the initial delay in executing the said judgment. And while the Respondent
State could have launched the consensus based legislative process to reform the
law governing the electoral body earlier, the Court finds the Respondent State’s
justification of the delay acceptable.
263. Accordingly,
the
Court
holds
that the
Respondent
State
has
not violated
its
obligation to execute the judgment of the Court.
57