Most advice about problems on election day stops at “report it through the proper channel”, which is the kind of sentence that sounds like help and provides none. The decree is far more specific than that. It names a document, names who draws it up, names who countersigns it, and says where it travels afterwards. This guide is about that document, and about the three completely different channels people keep confusing.
In short
The single most useful thing you can ask for is a procès-verbal d'incidents et d'irrégularités. It is drawn up by the president of your voting bureau, at the request of any interested party, and countersigned by the deputy supervisor of the centre (decree, art. 38). It is not a complaint form that disappears into a drawer: art. 251 places the incident record in the same sealed transparent envelope as the count record and the attendance lists, all the way to the departmental office. Three channels exist and they are not interchangeable: the incident record on the day, the criminal channel for offences, and the electoral tribunals for the result. Asking for the right one is most of the battle.
The right almost nobody uses
Art. 38 lists the duties of the deputy supervisors of a voting centre. The third of them is the one worth memorising: they countersign any procès-verbal of incidents and irregularities drawn up by the president of the voting bureau at the request of any interested party, or of the principal supervisor.
Read that again, because two things in it matter. First, the record is drawn up on request, it does not depend on the bureau deciding by itself that something is worth writing down. Second, the decree says any interested party and does not define the phrase. In practice the requests most often come from party mandataires and accredited observers, who are explicitly empowered to report irregularities and to ask that a procès-verbal be drawn up (art. 254). But the text is not written as a list of who may ask, so do not assume in advance that you will be turned away.
A second record exists for disorder. When the principal or deputy supervisor, or the bureau president, calls on the electoral security agent or on the Force Publique to restore order inside the bureau, a procès-verbal is drawn up of that too (art. 231).
Why that piece of paper matters
Because of where it goes. Art. 251 provides that the original of the count records and of the incident records, the main and supplementary attendance lists and the counting sheet are placed in one and the same sealed transparent envelope, to be routed through the reception centres to the departmental electoral office for the tabulation bureau.
So an incident recorded in your bureau does not stay in your bureau. It travels, sealed, alongside the numbers it may explain. That is what makes it evidence rather than an anecdote.
It matters again later. The electoral tribunals order a recount on specific, documentary grounds, a count record with missing vote data, with illegible sections, showing evidence of fraudulent alteration, or carrying figures in numbers and in words that do not match (art. 299.3). Challenges to results have to point at particular procès-verbaux, before a particular body, with particular evidence. A challenge that says “there were problems” is not a challenge. Read: How results can be contested
Who to speak to, in order
- The president of your voting bureau. They hold every electoral document of the bureau and they are the person who draws up the incident record (arts. 38 and 45.1).
- The deputy supervisor, then the principal supervisor of the centre. The deputy countersigns the record and must also write an immediate report on the conduct of the vote and transmit it (art. 38). The principal supervisor has an express duty of his or her own: to receive all grievances relating to irregularities noted during the vote (art. 37).
- The electoral security agents. There are at least two per centre, and one of their three stated duties is to prevent any coercion of voters (art. 49). They may be called in to restore order (art. 231).
- An accredited observer or a party mandataire. They are in the room precisely to see this, and asking for a record is part of their mandate (art. 254).
What none of them can do is decide the election. Only the CEP's Conseil d'Administration may annul a scrutin, and an interruption of voting is not automatically a ground for annulment (art. 240). Only an Instance Contentieuse may annul a count record (art. 261.4). Anyone in a polling station telling you the election there has been cancelled is describing a decision they have no power to make.
What is actually an offence
The decree's penal chapters are unusually concrete. These are the ones a voter is most likely to witness.
| Conduct | Penalty | Article |
|---|---|---|
| Knowingly violating, or attempting to violate, the secrecy of the vote | 10 to 30 days and 35,000–50,000 G | 336 |
| Attempting to vote while deprived of the right to vote | 10 to 25 days and 50,000–75,000 G | 340 |
| Registering more than once, or voting more than once | 6 months to 1 year and 50,000–75,000 G | 344 |
| Publishing forecasts about the conduct of the vote on polling day | 6 months to 1 year and 75,000–100,000 G | 347 |
| Bargaining for, or influencing, a vote by threat, trickery or abuse of power | 6 months to 3 years and 300,000–500,000 G | 351 |
| Using false news to mislead a voter or push them to abstain | 6 months to 1 year and 50,000–75,000 G | 353 |
| Preventing or disturbing the operation of a centre or bureau | 6 months to 3 years and 300,000–500,000 G | 350 |
| A public agent, CEP employees included, campaigning or lending state property to a campaign | 1 to 3 years and 300,000–500,000 G | 354 |
| Selling your vote / buying a vote | Hard labour, and 500,000 G / 3–5 million G | 358 |
Two procedural points give those numbers teeth. The lighter penalties are pronounced by the Tribunal de Paix of the place of the offence, as a summary matter (art. 341). The heavier ones go to the Tribunal Correctionnel, immediately, without adjournment or waiting for a turn on the roll, on the prosecution's application or by direct citation from the victim or from the CEP (art. 357). The victim is not obliged to wait for someone else to act.
Read: No one can buy your vote · Read: Your rights at the polls
The three channels, and why the difference matters
| If the problem is… | The channel is… | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Something happening now, in the room | A procès-verbal of incidents and irregularities, requested from the bureau president | Your bureau, on the day (arts. 38, 231, 251) |
| Conduct the decree punishes | The criminal channel, on the prosecution's application or by direct citation from the victim or the CEP | Tribunal de Paix or Tribunal Correctionnel (arts. 341, 357) |
| Your name wrongly on or off the list | A list challenge, decided within 24 hours | The BCEC of your commune (arts. 306, 315) |
| The result itself | A results challenge, with a memoir, the relevant procès-verbaux and a deposit | BCEC, then BCED, then BCEN (arts. 306, 308, 309) |
The last one is not a citizen's everyday tool: a results challenge requires a candidate's or agent's NINU, a memoir with supporting documents, and a receipt for a deposit paid to the DGI, from 2,000 gourdes for a CASEC or ASEC seat up to 100,000 for the presidency (arts. 308 and 309). The first three are far more accessible, and the first one costs nothing at all. Read: Your name is not on the electoral list
How to ask, so that the answer is useful
Precision is what separates a record that helps from a record that does not. When you ask the bureau president to draw one up, give the facts you actually saw and nothing else: what happened, where, at what time, who was involved, and who else saw it. Ask for the bureau number and the centre name to be on the record, they identify which procès-verbal it will travel with. If people are handing out cash near the entrance, that is a fact; “the election is rigged” is not.
Note also what you may not do, whatever you saw. Neither observers nor anyone else may publish partial results or the trend of the vote before the CEP's official publication (art. 259), and publishing forecasts about the conduct of the vote on polling day is itself an offence (art. 347).
Put your safety first
None of this is worth being hurt over. If a situation is dangerous, step back, get to a safe place, and raise it afterwards with the electoral security agents, the supervisors or the BEC of your commune. A record made the following morning by someone unharmed is worth more than a confrontation.
What it changes in your daily life
The gap between “I saw something wrong” and “something was done about it” is usually one sheet of paper that nobody asked for. The decree already provides for that sheet: it names who writes it, who countersigns it, and puts it in a sealed envelope alongside the count.
So carry three sentences with you on 13 December. Ask the president of the bureau for a procès-verbal d'incidents et d'irrégularités. Say only what you saw, where and when. And if it is dangerous, leave, then report. That is the difference between a story told on the radio and a document a tribunal can read.