Some people’s misplaced voting cards become a hard issue to understand

English translation by community member LightMyWay.

Some people who have lost or misplaced their voting cards are finding it hard to get another and yet the CENI (Commission Electorale Nationale Indépendante, Independent National Electoral Commission) has been clear on the issue. The CENI has discussed being able to re-apply for free after losing your voting card.

I am speaking to you as a member of the Association for Women and Children in Danger (FED). Too many members end up losing their cards in rural or urban areas. We posed the question to CENI, which clearly responded that everything would be free.

The serious part is that currently to get this replacement card some people are paying more than 10 dollars, even without the certainty they’ll actually get the duplicate. On a daily basis the CENI office is always too full and to get any help there they ask you to go to meetings that never end.

People are taken aback and abandon their activities of survival which depend on the revenue of households both in rural and in urban places.

Those who have become victims of losing their voting cards don’t know what to do anymore.

Regardless of the estimated date, this will never end, because CENI’s members work too slowly, while cards are getting lost and the victims are numerous.

We members of the FED Association and myself in particular ask the people reading this message to make or to lead an appeal so this victimised and vulnerable population can get new cards, by having the CENI reduce the terms which are causing problems for some people. These people have the right to the vote, which is premised on having a voting card, which for some is becoming quite a headache.

The question that we’re asking is, is this a strategy to keep certain people from voting? Because there will be fewer people going to vote due to this strategic situation.

This is Anselme Mans.