On Tuesday, August 1st, 2023, Émile Ebrotié, the spokesperson for the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI), announced during a press conference held at the institution’s headquarters in Abidjan-Cocody, the rejection of the candidacies of Meité Amadou in the commune of Sifié, Fofana Lassina in the commune of Djibrosso, as well as six (06) other candidates without any political affiliation.
According to Mr. Ebrotié, in Seydou Ouattara’s list, 41 out of 60 candidates failed to present the required deposit receipts as stipulated by article 188 of the Electoral Code. Additionally, around 20 candidates on the list did not manage to present all the necessary documents. As for the candidacy lists led by Meité Amadou and Fofana Lassina alias Dosso, none of the registered candidates succeeded in presenting the deposit receipts and tax clearance certificates, while some candidates failed to provide the nationality and residency certificates prescribed by the law. Moreover, they were unable to ensure gender alternance in their lists.
The candidate list presented by Dembélé Boué Junior only has twenty-five (25) individuals registered for sixty-five (65) vacant positions in the commune, contrary to article 187 paragraph 1 of the Electoral Code, which states that “candidates shall be presented in the form of a list containing as many candidates as there are seats to be filled, and no candidate list for the municipal council election shall be accepted if it does not include a number of candidates equal to the number of seats to be filled in the electoral constituency in question.”
According to the examination of the list dossier carried out by Mr. Bilali Diarra, there are reasons rendering him ineligible as the head of the list. According to the CEI, the candidate without any political affiliation is not on the electoral list due to the loss of his civic and political rights, which is, however, a necessary requirement to be a candidate. “Invited to produce a replacement, he refused to exercise this right offered to him by article 189 of the Electoral Code; therefore, it is necessary to declare the list he leads as ineligible, as his ineligibility affects the entire list,” stated Mr. Ebrotié.
Furthermore, the CEI representative asked the candidates whose applications have been rejected, as well as the party or political group that invested in them, to contact the Council of State within three days from the publication of this decision. “Any voter or candidate from the electoral constituency concerned may challenge an entry on the candidate lists no later than thirty days before the day of the poll,” he said.
Finally, he emphasized that the candidature dossiers other than those mentioned above, whose list is attached to this decision, comply with the law and that the candidates who submitted them are eligible for having fulfilled the eligibility conditions provided by the Electoral Code.
