4.1.1 Importance of factors favourable to the adoption of norms and standards The beginning of democratization has favoured, in most African countries in general and in West Africa in particular, the occurrence of political crises related to the outburst of conflicts caused essentially by the lack of a consensus for the definition of the rules of the political competition or by the conduct of electoral processes( Côte d'Ivoire, Togo, and Guinea). The lack of consensus has even caused the boycott of elections by the main opposition in certain cases(Malian presidential elections in 1997 and Senegalese legislative elections in 2007). The temptation to choose non democratic means to accede to power is still high and the difficulty to determine rational and consensual rules governing elections have caused the international community as well as regional and sub-regional organizations to adopt legal measures that are used to indicate minimal norms guaranteeing the reliability of elections. At the global level, efforts are made to set up the principle of open and transparent elections as the only modality to have access to power and to bring out the standards of what should be normal elections. It is in this vein that many international legal instruments for the promotion of human rights have devoted themselves to the harmonization of principles that will govern elections. In this respect, the universal declaration of human rights consecrates the political pluralism and its corollary as the principle to designate leaders through elections governed by universal suffrage, periodicity, honesty, equality, freedom and the secrecy of elections. These principles have been more clearly stated by the international Pact on Civic Political Rights of 1966, article 25 of which makes provision for the right of every citizen to take part in the direction of public affairs, vote and be voted for during periodical, free elections through universal suffrage with equal rights in terms of secret ballots, in ensuring the expression of free will of the electorate, to accede on the basis of equal conditions to have access to public employment. 214