CHAPTER THREE: DEMOCRACY AND POLITICAL GOVERNANCE __________________________________________________________________________ Box 3.2: The Charter of Political Parties: a suitable but ineffective legal framework Although Article 5 of the constitution states that “Political parties shall contribute to the voting process, they shall be formed and shall exercise their activities freely per the terms of the Charter of Political Parties”, it is the legislators who have the duty to organise the formal framework within which political parties can operate. In 1990, the first Charter of Political Parties (law 90-023 of 13 August 1990) provided for political pluralism in accordance with the multiparty system. However, promoters of political parties do not always respect the required standards, and this results in the current proliferation of parties that operate outside the law. Drawing lessons from the anarchical and cacophonous development of the partisan system, the public authorities reformulated the Charter of Political Parties through Law 2001-21 of February 2001. This law defines political parties as groups of citizens trained to promote and defend their plans for society and political programmes in terms of the constitution of 11 December 1990 (Article 2). The law assigns to them a clearly defined responsibility. The Charter of Political Parties compels all parties to have manifestos (Article 4) and to play a role in political life. To this end, “parties or groups of political parties may express their opinions on any issue of local, national or international interest” (Article 11). Among others, they are called upon to: (i) participate actively in raising awareness about morals in all aspects of public life; (ii) defend and respect public property; (iii) contribute to the depoliticisation of public administration; (iv) help to safeguard cohesion and national unity; and (v) work toward the promotion of fundamental freedoms and human rights. They must also contribute to the training of citizens, and be actively involved in parliamentary affairs and the control of government’s activities. To be recognised, all political parties must respect certain criteria, and the state guarantees them the full enjoyment of public freedoms while respecting the constitution (Article 9). The new charter compels existing political parties to comply with its provisions within a period of 12 months or lose their legal status. Only 28 parties have met this requirement within the time frame set by the law. Strict application of the provisions of this charter should have led to the dissolution of defaulting parties. This would have clarified the country’s political scene, brought an end to the confusion and strengthened the authority of the state. 151. From another point of view, the issue of the legal status of the opposition remains a great source of concern. Although the law on this issue was promulgated in 2001, it has never been really applied. The regulatory and material guarantees of opposition parties and their heads have remained ineffective. This has so affected the position that today there is no real and official opposition in Parliament to hold the ruling party in check. This brings up the issue of sustaining constitutional democracy in the absence of a strong opposition. 152. Benin’s electoral system is not free of suspicion and it has become ineffectual in its ability to guarantee free, fair and transparent elections. In 1995, CENA, an independent institution, was set up to oversee all elections. It has since 76