3.3 Problems and challenges regarding the financing of elections 3.1.1 The cost of elections Having decided to build systems of liberal democracy in West African countries, the cost of elections has become a preoccupation which cannot be ignored. In most countries of the sub-region, one observes a substantial increase in the cost of elections from year to year. In certain countries, the leaders have even used that as a pretext(sometimes with success) to postpone the elections, as was the case in Senegal which postponed the 2006 legislative elections to 2007, thereby disrespecting the legally determined electoral timetable. Others have used this pretext to claim that the cost of elections must be controlled through the manner in which they make resources available to the electoral commission, in order to disturb the running of the elections and thus influence the quality of the electoral process. The solution of the problem regarding the costs of elections is not simple because it confronts the new political actors of West Africa with a sort of Cornelian dilemma: it becomes a matter of choosing between quality and cost. These two variables being positively linked, the quality is supposed to rise at the same time as the financial means required for the elections increase, which poses a problem for developing countries with limited resources. It follows therefore that elections are too costly for these young democracies. The question then is how to fix the costs and still have fair elections. In effect, the costs of elections should neither be too high nor too low. If the costs of election are too high this puts an unbearable pressure on the already lean resources of the countries, with all the risks that this entails for the quality of the elections. The possibility to resort to external funding does not offer total guarantee against this risk. 186