aged at least forty and at most seventy five years for the office of President (Article 23 of the Constitution) and at least twenty three years old for parliamentary office (Article 46) - every Djiboutian is eligible for elective office. 140. The 1992 Electoral Act determines eligibility conditions of candidates, the organization of elections, counting of votes and declaration of results. It contains all provisions necessary for free and fair elections. 141. Article 11 of this Act stipulates that “every voter who can read, write and fluently speak French and Arabic” may stand for parliamentary elections. These legal provisions are not a form of discrimination based on the level of education but are rather motivated by the desire to allow parliamentarians to fully play both their legislative role and that of overseeing the action of the Government with their ability to review documents prepared in the two official languages of the country. 142. Successive reforms introduced by the 1992 Electoral Act have made it possible to remove certain restrictions on the right to be elected, such as membership of a political party (articles 22 and 23). The State has undertaken to broaden the political landscape, as reflected in the burgeoning of political parties, and independent candidates now have the possibility to stand for presidential elections. 143. Laws governing the conduct of regional and municipal elections were prepared along the same lines. Article 16 of the 2005 Act on the statute of the city of Djibouti and Article 22 of the Act on Decentralization and Regional Statutes state that "lists may be presented by political parties and independent candidates". Local governments established subsequent to the first elections in 2008 included a significant number of councillors from civil society. 144. The 10-day period made available to submit nominations for candidates in presidential (Article 21) and parliamentary elections (Article 33) as well as the payment of a fee of DF 5 million by candidates for presidential elections and a fee of DF 500,000 for candidates in parliamentary elections are reasonable and non-discriminatory. 145. Article 28 recognizes “the right for every presidential elections candidate to be refunded should they obtain more than 10% of votes cast”. Under the much simplified procedures for local elections, the nomination of candidates is confirmed simply by submitting an electoral list (article 16 of the Act on the Statute of the City of Djibouti and article 19 of the Act on Decentralization and Regional Statutes). 146. The Government of Djibouti has always strived to ensure respect and implementation of rights and the Constitutional Council is in charge of monitoring the effective realization of these rights by deciding on the various issues which may be brought before it. 147. Articles 43 and 46 of the Constitution specify conflicts of interest between elected office and certain posts with regard to the exercise of presidential and parliamentary functions. 148. Government measures in this area have fostered the holding of periodic and fair elections, universal and equal suffrage, and the secret ballot. In that spirit, Djibouti allows the presence of national and international observers to monitor the regularity and fairness of elections. 31