Guaranteeing the inviolability and integrity of the vote was the theme at the heart of a symposium which brought together the actors of the elections in West Africa on December 12, 2022 in Grand Bassam in Côte d’Ivoire. It was a prelude to the General Assembly of the Network of Electoral Management Structures in West Africa (RESAO).
In addition to the interventions of the Representatives of IDEA and GIZ, the Chairman of the RESEAO steering committee and Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) of Côte d’Ivoire, Mr. Ibrahime KUIBERT-COULIBALY affirmed that “….the RESAO wishes to examine the mechanisms making it possible to ensure the protection of the will expressed by the voters during the elections, to protect the expressed will of the voters from fraud.
Following him, Her Excellency Madame Fanta CISSE, Resident Representative of ECOWAS in Côte d’Ivoire indicated that “the struggle to establish the integrity of the vote is an existential struggle not only for electoral administrators but also for all those who aspire to live in free societies where freedom of expression is guaranteed.
It is important to specify that this symposium recorded the presence of the Presidents of National Electoral Commissions of ECOWAS Member States, the members of the Electoral Management Bodies in West Africa and the Electoral Experts.
