The president of the Independent Higher Authority for Elections (ISIE), Farouk Bouaskar, said Thursday, November 24, that the new voting system and the new distribution of electoral constituencies pose new challenges to the electoral body, particularly those related to the control of electoral campaigns at the constituency level, and of campaign speeches, insofar as the new electoral code has hardened calls for violence, hatred, and bigotry, reports Shems.
Speaking during a study day on electoral crimes and the role of the prosecution and the judicial police, he mentioned another challenge, that is inherent in the control of the financing of the electoral campaign, which the body will not be able to ensure, only in coordination with the prosecution and the judicial police.
Bouaskar reported coordination from the start of the process with the Ministry of the Interior and the prosecution, to secure this period and apply the law to all.
Regarding the control by the ISIE of the media coverage, he indicated that the authority was forced to assume this responsibility, for not having been able to sign a joint decision with the HAICA.
“To avoid a legal vacuum, especially since some parties did not assume their responsibility, the electoral body did not leave the field vacant and issued a regulatory decision, which was published in the JORT”, a- he underlined quoted by the same source.
The media are required to provide the body with a detailed plan of all the programs they will devote to covering the campaign, he demanded.
The authority has devoted a control unit which will begin its work tomorrow Friday, concomitantly with the start of the electoral campaign for the legislative elections inside.
