For the voters who are legally registered on the electoral lists but have not obtained their voters’ cards, a Committee has been set up and given the mission of examining these requests. This amendment also provides for the relaxing of the conditions relative to the scrutineers as well as the reduction of the number of polling booths in the Districts with more than 7,000 voters so as to allow the Opposition Parties to accredit the Observers in these booths. 252. Likewise the 2003 amendment prohibited the members of the polling booth from wearing signs likely to indicate their political affiliation. This measure clearly illustrates the concern to promote the conditions of democratic exercise. In line with this will is registered the amendment compelling the voter to personally sign the electoral list proving the accomplishment of the voting operation. 253. The reform of the electoral Code brought about the organic law n° 2003-58 of the 4th August 2003, amending and completing the electoral Code, aims to confer on the electoral process extra transparency and to consolidate the achievements registered in the development of the pluralist democratic process. This reform amended 46 Articles and added an equivalent number to the Code. According to the provisions of this law, the voter is compelled, after having voted, to put his signature on the electoral list, the members of the polling booth are compelled to be neutral, the accreditation of the observers by the Political Parties is made easier, the vote by proxy is prohibited, dealing with the dispute about registration on the electoral lists is entrusted to the legal authority. 254. Thus, the amendments of the electoral Code place the greatest of responsibilities during the elections in the hands of the competing Parties, including the observation of the voting operations and the counting, and the lodging of complaints for any abuse. All this is done before a neutral administration, which provides the required services in the polling booths and in the counting centres. The Movement of Socialist Democrats, for instance, put in place 436 observers during the 2004 legislative elections, but did not submit any complaint. 255. Seven Parties participated in the 2004 legislative elections, with 168 electoral lists besides the seven independent lists. Each Party has its programme, its objectives, its orientations and its own political choices. They differ from each other on several points, but all agree on the principles of the Republican political system, namely the rejection of the theories defended by the obscurantist forces and the need to safeguard the acheivements of modernism. The number of candidates for the seats of the National Assembly came close to a thousand, for 189 seats, namely more than 5 candidates per seat. These figures are far higher than those registered during the elections of 1999 and those of 1994. The rate of participation registered during the legislative elections of 2004 was 91.45%. The rate of the legislative elections which took place in October 1999 was 91.4%. 56