CHAPTER THREE: DEMOCRACY AND POLITICAL GOVERNANCE __________________________________________________________________________ become the central point of the country’s electoral process. Its status ought to be guaranteed by the constitution to enhance its legitimacy. 153. Of CENA’s 25 members, 19 are appointed by parties, two by civil society and four by government. CENA is responsible for preparing, organising, running and supervising the presidential and legislative elections, and for centralising the results, which it sends to the Constitutional Court for verification. The Constitutional Court declares the results. However, CENA declares the results of the communal and municipal polls itself. It has been active in all the elections and has branches in the departments and communes. Its term of office ends with the completion of the elections. Despite the existence of a permanent administrative secretariat, this irregularity poses a problem since having to establish CENA before each election seems like ‘reinventing the wheel’. Setting up these CENAs is often fraught with much delay and dillydallying, and it is often difficult for the new CENA to build on the experiences of the previous ones. Good practice 3.2: Compliance with the electoral timetable for presidential and legislative elections The challenge of good democratic governance The regular organisation of elections on the basis of election timetables, set in advance, is a good practice which will help inculcate the democratic culture in the country’s habits. Presidential elections were held in 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2006. The resultant changeovers in power in 1991, 1996 and 2006 are laudable examples to be emulated by other countries on the continent. Legislative elections were held in 1991, 1995, 1999, 2003 and 2007. Following the municipal elections in 2002-2003, local elections will be held in early 2008, five years after the current municipal councils took office. However, election timetables should be planned more rationally. The country seems to be permanently mobilised for costly election campaigns while the people suffer. These unending electoral campaigns may very well lead to voter apathy. Can a poor country in a constant state of electioneering meet the challenges of economic development? 154. With the absence of an electoral code as such, specific electoral laws approved for each type of election are adopted and amended prior to the election taking place. The presidential election is conducted through a two-round majority system, while the legislative election is decided by list-based proportional voting. This system actually helps small parties to thrive. The stakeholders pointed out the lack of equity in the representation of the communes (no MPs for some, and over-representation for others) in Parliament because of the regional-based listing. For this reason, some people proposed the idea of having constituency divisions or a representative system that would guarantee at least one MP per district. 155. With each election and change in government, the lack of a transparent and secure voters’ register has raised concerns about the issue of the reliability of 77