A/HRC/31/78 28,000 members of Ivorian security forces (the police, gendarmerie and army) were deployed throughout the country. Their mission was to head off any trouble or violence and to ensure that citizens would feel safe and could confidently go to the polls undisturbed. In addition, all the candidates were provided with comparable security details. 12. During the official election campaign, which ran from 9 to 23 October 2015, the Independent Electoral Commission made sure that all the candidates had equal access to government media (Ivorian television and the daily newspaper, Fraternité matin). Before the elections, the Independent Electoral Commission had met with each candidate, had taken note of his or her comments and of any grievances and had made an effort to ensure that they were taken into consideration. All the candidates were entitled to have two representatives at the polling stations and were able to avail themselves of that right without hindrance. National and international observers were present during the voting. Electronic biometric tablets were used to check voters’ identities and so avoid voter fraud. Unfortunately, this system did not work well at some polling stations since, on election day, some polling officers were unable to use these electronic tablets properly, even though they had been instructed in their use during training sessions organized for that purpose. In these relatively rare cases, manual identification systems had to be used instead. 13. Polling officers stationed in more remote areas of the country brought th e voting records back and validated the results. It is highly significant that the unsuccessful candidates did not contest the results and that they all attended the President ’s inauguration. The Independent Electoral Commission is to be credited with the organizational work involved in this achievement (without, of course, forgetting the role of all its various partners). This standing body will be called upon to organize numerous other elections to be held in the future. 3. Forthcoming elections 14. The democratic process will continue with other (legislative, regional and municipal) elections. The Independent Electoral Commission is committed to organizing them all successfully in accordance with national and international standards for the good of all Ivorians. However, organizing these elections may be just as complicated, or even more so, than the presidential elections were. The Commission should therefore begin its preparations now while exercising the utmost vigilance in this respect. Its personnel are in need of ongoing training, and the people who will be asked to operate the electronic tablets, if they are to be used in future elections, will require further instruction. More generally, training should be more carefully tailored to the established objectives and should be provided with sufficient lead time. 4. Lessons to be learned 15. The Independent Electoral Commission should seek to learn all the lessons it can from the recent presidential elections. It would be highly instructive, for exa mple, to examine the voter turnouts in each region, classify them, compare them, analyse them and use this as a basis for drawing conclusions and developing useful recommendations for the future. It is important to determine, for example, why voter turnout was lower in certain regions of the country, to what extent each presidential candidate was able or unable to mount a campaign with nationwide coverage and why, and how to rebuild the electorate’s trust in the electoral process and in politicians. These are not idle questions. The answers to them and the social and political adjustments which they indicate are needed could greatly improve the way in which the current national reconciliation process is being handled and could strengthen the GE.16-00901 7/23