in the West African region. These main principles, which will be intellectually informed by national laws and best electoral practices, can be formulated as orientations. An effort to combine the various national legislations and better practices allow us to bring out a minimal number of electoral norms and standards. The electoral legislation is made up of the constitutions which in the majority of the Francophone countries regulate the presidential elections in general and particularly the conditions of eligibility of the president, which led countries like Ivory Coast and Togo into political crisis. There are also the legislative and regulative texts which govern the electoral process, laws relating to the structures of management and supervision of elections(the electoral commissions), laws relating to the access of the political parties to the media, and laws relating to the financing of political parties. Moreover, the best electoral practices deserving to be set up as standards need to be documented. With the existing protocols in mind, the main principles on the following issues can be defined: - The consensus for the definition of the rules of elections; - The respect of the principle of periodicity of the elections according to which the elections must be held in regular intervals and with fixed dates; - The sincerity of the poll in the broad sense with components such as the gathering of criteria for competitive elections, which include: clarity and acceptance of the electoral legislation, independence of the structure of management of elections, confidence in the electoral system, existence of credible legal ways for the benefit of all stakeholders(candidates and citizens); - Freedom and equality in the access of the candidates to the media; - The respect of equality and the preservation of public funds in the system of financing of political parties and candidates; - Guarantee of the right to vote and to be eligible: freedom of 219