D) The Local Council Elections 260. The amendment of the electoral Code in 1998 strengthened the presence of the Opposition in the Muncipal Councils and enabled it to obtain 243 seats during the 2005 elections. The Decree n° 2000-907 of 8th May 2000, relative to the exceptional review of the electoral lists aims to grant extra time to the voters who were not registered on these lists on time, thereby guaranteeing them the exercise of their electoral right. 261. During the municipal elections of the 25th May 2005, the number of candidates surpassed 5,000 whereas in 2000 the number of candidates had been 4,200. The Opposition made its entry for the first time, into the Municipal Councils during the municipal elections which took place in May 2000. They resulted in a wider representation of the Opposition Parties and of the independent lists in the Municipal Councils which resulted from it. The number of Municipal Councils belonging to these Parties or to the independent lists increased signficantly since it increased from 6 seats during the municipal mandate of 1994 to 243 in 2005. This orientation of the local democracy constitutes a section which is inseparable from the entire democratic edifice. It aims at broadening the field of participation in the national development effort for all the citizens. It is for this reason that the 4,366 municipal councillors take on during their mandate, the responsibility of making the City a place of conviviality, of modernism, of solidarity and of daily and permanent exercise of local democracy. 262. The participation to this exercise of local democracy in 2005 alongside the ruling Party, the four Opposition Political Parties and the list of independents, shows that politics, understood to be a management of the affairs of the City, arouses the interest of the Tunisians. 263. The rate of citizenship participation in these elections, the transparency and the neutrality of the administration which marked the voting process, the massive entry of women as councillors only became possible thanks to the establishment of institutional and cultural mechanisms, as well as the dissemination of a civic culture which promoted the increased involvement of the citizens and of civil society in the affairs of the City. 264. To provide greater guarantees of the transparency of the voting process, a « National Elections Observatory » had been created in 1999 whose mission was to monitor the course of the presidential and legislative elections from the time of submission of the candidatures up to the proclamation of the results. This body is at the disposal of all the citizens. It takes note of all the observations addressed to it and the claims from the citizens or from the political parties relative to the organization of the campaign and contacts the public service to correct the defaults or the shortcomings raised so as to better accomplish its mission for the realization of the transparency and the legality of the electoral process. 265. At the end of the elections, the Observatory produces a Report for the President of the Republic containing the notes of the observers and the proposals for the purpose of making the rectifications necessary for the improvement of the electoral system. 59