14. Two days after the adoption of the Law by the National Assembly, Mr. Kramo
KOUASSI, acting on behalf of a group of 29 parliamentarians of the National
Assembly, on 30 May 2014, seized the Constitutional Council of Cote d'lvoire
with a prayer to declare four (4) provisions of the aforesaid law (Articles 5, 15,
16 and 17) unconstitutional. According to him, the provisions in question
violate the right to equality before the law enshrined in the lvorian Constitution
in its Article 2 which provides that "All human beings are born free and equal
before the law" and Article 33(1) which provides that "the suffrage shall be universal,
free, equal and secret".
15. Mr. Kramo KOUASSI alleged that the presence within the IEC Central
Commission of a personal representative of the President of the Republic and
a personal representative of the President of the National Assembly
constitutes a breach of the principle of equality of candidates given the fact
that, according to him, the first can stand as a candidate to succeed himself,
and the latter also fulfils the eligibility requirements set forth by the electoral
law.
16. He maintained further that the representation in the IEC, of the Minister in
charge of Territorial Administration, the Minister in charge of Economy and
Finance, the High Judicial Council, the region Prefect, the Department Prefect
and the Sub-Prefect is superfluous in the sense that the law governing the IEC
in its Article 37, provides that the latter shall be accorded Government
assistance in terms of administrative, financial and technical staff, whose
support is required for the proper functioning of its services; that the said
representation is not only worthless but is also unfair in as much as it creates,
in favour of the President of the Republic, an unequal treatment on account of
the over-representation of the latter within the IEC.
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