other countries( Guinea Bissau 3 , Cape Verde, Gambia, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Niger, Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso) have among their main missions:(a) the establishment, management and conservation of the national electoral file and(b) the organization and supervision of electoral and referendum operations. They are in charge: - During the pre-electoral period, of all the preparatory operations before electoral consultations, notably: updating and keeping of the national electoral register as well as electoral documents and materials, review of the electoral lists, contribution to the civic education of citizens in terms of expression of suffrage, locations and density of the polling stations; the frame for those issues is essentially determined by the law, but the details are left for the electoral commission; it conducts the operation leading to the printing of the ballot papers; - During electoral consultations or referenda, of anything that ensures the quality and credibility of elections: the electoral commission is in charge of supervising the operations(security of ballot papers, transportation and transfer of the minutes of the election, etc.) leading to the declaration of the provisional results by it; facilitating the monitoring of ballots by administrative courts and political parties. At the end of the voting exercise, the counting of the vote is done at the polling station and the results (by the polling stations) announced publicly and pasted while signed copies of the minutes are distributed to all the representatives of the political parties and candidates and sent to all the branches of the commission. Appeals and other claims are sent to the constitutional council(or its equivalent) in a certain number of days following the declaration of the provisional 3 The case of Guinea Bissau presents a peculiarity which deserves to be underscored here. Whereas it manages all the other key aspects of the electoral process, the electoral commission of Guinea Bissau does not control the preparation of the electoral list. It manages the list as established by the Ministry of Interior. 61