The CSE should make full use of its regulatory powers in all those specific aspects of a given electoral process that might not be sufficiently explained in the law, in order to
increase consistency and eliminate ambiguity in its interpretations.

In order to rationalise costs and procedures, consideration should be given to reducing the overall number of polling stations and to increasing the number of staff and voters per polling station.

The following amendments should be made to the Election Law to provide an effective mechanism to ensure compliance with the Election Law:
(i) The CEC or another appropriate independent complaints body should be given the power to issue administrative sanctions against proven violations of the Election Law.
(ii) The range of sanctions available to the CEC or the courts should be widened to allow appropriate measures for elections.
(iii) Sanctions should be proportionate to the offence. Criminal prosecution of election offences should be used only for serious offences or upon a referral to the public prosecutor by the CEC.
(iv) Complaints and sanctions should be able to be brought against legally-established bodies, including public bodies and political parties or coalitions, as well as individuals.
(vi) Complaints against alleged violations of the Election Law, especially on election day, should be capable of being submitted by all electoral stakeholders and not just candidates or their representatives.
(v) The list of electoral offences should be clarified as much as is possible. Broad ‘catch-all’ offences should be removed from legislation.

The CEC should address its lack of transparency at all levels of operations. The CEC should adopt a clear framework for ensuring full transparency. In particular, the CEC should:
(i) be committed to the prompt and complete publication of all decisions, minutes and internal procedures;
(ii) review the exclusion of stakeholders from its sessions or, alternatively, introduce formal structures for regular, open and consultative meetings with electoral stakeholders;
(iii) ensure that key areas of electoral procedures are properly contained in formal regulations rather than other formats;
(iv) clarify and publish the procedures for determining the number of seats per district and the basis for the allocation of set-aside Christian seats to certain districts;
(v) publish all details of the complaints it receives.

A comprehensive, consultative review should be held to extend opportunities to vote by other groups of eligible voters who are unable to attend their designated polling stations on election day, such as hospital patients, CEC staff etc. To this extent, alternatives to early voting should also be considered, such as enabling arrangements for absentee or postal voting.

The CEC and the PA, with continued involvement from the international community, should ensure that the CEC has sufficient guarantees of budgetary support and technical assistance to ensure it has the capacity to administer future municipal, parliamentary and presidential elections in a professional and independent manner, even in circumstances where elections are called at short-notice. Consideration should be given to extending the minimum timeframe for holding elections. The CEC should continue to deliver its effective and inclusive voter education programme.

The law should be amended to introduce an open, transparent and publicly accountable system for the nomination, selection and appointment of the Commissioners and all the electoral management officials, free from any political interference.

A more defined control system to select polling officials should be developed for future elections to strengthen public confidence in the Electoral Commission and the electoral process. The Electoral Commission may wish to look again at training and supporting the District Registrars to be Returning Officers.

The Electoral Commission should consider extending campaign hours, now limited from 7am to 6pm, in order to give the general public better opportunities to attending political rallies.

In order to increase HNEC’s transparency in the implementation of the election, a streamlined, periodic and inclusive public communication mechanism could be envisaged. The district Subcommissions could also profit from an improved and regulated communication strategy. The establishment of weekly information meetings with stakeholders could be particularly beneficial, together with an organised distribution of relevant documentation pertaining to the legal and electoral frameworks. Decisions and regulations produced by the EMB could be disseminated and clearly explained to the stakeholders.

The next EMB could envisage allowing for the full enjoyment of voting rights, by means of establishing the possibility of holding an anticipated voting exercise for the military personnel as well as for homebound and hospital bound persons.

In order to enhance the accuracy and completeness of the voter register and strengthen the public confidence in it, the EMB could consider to audit of the voter register once the register is digitalised.

Both Union and Zanzibar general elections ballots, three ballots in the mainland and five in Zanzibar, should be object of design review, harmonizing the layout by placing the blank voting box either under or next to the candidate or party identification in all ballots. The different placing of the voting boxes easily leads to confusion and marking mistakes, and might be one of the reasons to explain the percentage of invalid ballots.

The electoral commissions should make efforts to improve polling location infrastructures to better allow for counting of ballots in the best possible conditions. A high number of polling stations lacked electricity. Counting started immediately after closing at 16:00 hours when only two hours of daylight remained to count three concurrent polls posing additional challenges to election staff.

Création d’une cellule d’assistance légale et juridique au niveau de la CENI. Cette cellule préparera l’adoption des décisions et d’autres actes réglementaires de l’institution en toute expertise et cohérence avec le nouveau cadre juridique.

Les membres des bureaux de vote et des CAC devraient bénéficier d’une formation plus longue avant l’élection, tout le matériel pédagogique devrait être produit à l’avance et les procédures ne devraient pas être modifiées à la dernière minute comme cela a été le cas au deuxième tour avec par exemples l’introduction de l’enveloppe de vote. La présence des membres des bureaux de vote aux séances de formation devrait être rémunérée et garantie par l’utilisation de jetons de présence.

Les dispositions du cadre juridique et réglementaire révisées devraient établir un système de résolution administrative des différends en première instance par la commission électorale et ses démembrements locaux. Elles devraient préciser les procédures applicable au règlement du contentieux post-électoral et à l’exercice du pouvoir d’office de la Cour constitutionnelle (ou Cour suprême).

Essentielles - L’utilisation d’un bulletin unique pour les prochains scrutins est fondamentale pour plusieurs raisons notamment: réduire les coûts des prochaines élections ; simplifier les procédures de votation pour les électeurs et les membres de BV ; éviter la longueur et la complexité d’un dépouillement avec deux urnes. Un bulletin unique permettrait d’éliminer l’utilisation du taux de discordance par l’administration électorale décidé et appliqué de manière discrétionnaire; éliminer toute forme de contrôle et d’intimidation à l’égard de l’électeur notamment en évitant de positionner l’isoloir d’une manière qui pourrait affecter le secret du vote (comme cela a été le cas lors des élections communales), et en supprimant la fouille corporelle à la sortie du BV. L’introduction d’un bulletin unique ne présenterait pas d’obstacle pour l’électeur illettré d’exprimer son vote à travers l’apposition de son empreinte digitale sur le bulletin.
Souhaitables - Les capacités des CECI et CEPI doivent être renforcées, en particulier en terme de formation, de moyens de transport, de moyens de communication et de moyens informatiques légers.
Dirigées à - Législateur CENI Code électoral

Essentielles - Il est recommandé que certaines mesures de transparence soient inscrites dans le Code électoral, en particulier :
- La liste des électeurs doit être affichée et une copie doit en être donnée aux partis politiques et candidats indépendants;
- La liste des candidats à chaque élection doit faire l’objet d’une publication et d’une information suffisante ;
- Les mandataires de tous les partis politiques présents dans les bureaux de vote doivent obtenir copie des résultats du bureau de vote, soit sous forme de copie carbone des résultats, soit sous forme d’extrait certifié du PV.
- Les mandataires doivent obtenir une copie du PV des opérations électorales où des observations peuvent être inscrites.
- Les résultats des bureaux de vote doivent être affichés au centre de vote immédiatement à l’issue du dépouillement.
- Les modalités de transmission et de consolidation des résultats doivent être précisées.
Dirigées à - Législateur Code électoral, Chapitres Vi et VII CENI

The EU EOM encourages the efforts to reduce the number of result forms to be filled in by the polling station members.

The NEBE should take measures to enhance transparency at all levels of the electoral administration to guarantee its accountability. The NEBE should publish and disseminate all of the technical tools of the electoral process: polling station lists, constituency lists, lists of registered voters, information on public financing of election campaigns, as well the exact procedures and arrangements for minority constituencies.

The EU EOM considers that public observers did not contribute to the transparency or confidence of the process and that their presence should be reconsidered, especially in the Grievance Hearing Committees (GHC).

It should submit regular public reports and be accountable to the National Assembly for its activities, to ensure that all of its responsibilities are fully implemented.

In order to achieve the necessary scrutiny and transparency, the NEC should consider developing transparency in all of its operations, in particular on its website which should be further developed and kept fully up-to-date. It should in particular address the following as a priority:

Collecting information from states and constituencies (for example complaints lodged, polling station locations, polling station results) to be centrally gathered on the internet, as well as at the local level.