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Momodou
Denmark
11835 Posts |
 Posted - 01 Apr 2007 : 16:13:24
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Foroyaa Editorial
FOCUS ON THE INDEPENDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSION
THE WAY FORWARD
Presidential and National Assembly elections are behind us. Only the council election is pending. It is however necessary to draw the necessary lessons so that the credibility of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) will be enhanced. It is evident that the process of having a fair election starts with the identification of those who are qualified to be registered as voters. In The Gambia, this is still a problem because of the lack of an effective system in registering births and a transparent system in handling the issue of nationalization.
A modern country which aims to be an economic super power and model for Africa cannot afford to have a Stone Age system of determining citizenship. Where in the modern world in the 21st century do you find people acquiring the right of a citizen by simply preparing a form without any security feature and allow any five elders to sign it to attest to one’s nationality? This crude way of determining citizenship is what obtained during the last registration of voters. The same goes with determination of age of the applicant for a voter’s card. This is why the election observers saw so many young people of doubtful age in the queues. It is also not surprising that as immigration officers move about to check on those who have not paid for and acquired their alien identification card they keep on arresting people with Gambian documents whose children in Gambian schools would stand and protest against their arrests. We continuously asked what was the reason for the shortage of material since 120 million dalasi was supposed to be available for the electoral process leading to council elections.
The situation became more confused when the then chairman of the Commission was removed and detained after claiming that the president gave the IEC money to procure materials to enable them to complete the registration exercise.
Foroyaa is reliably informed that the IEC has acknowledged that President Jammeh provided them with a sum of money to the tune of $US10, 000 dollars to complete the registration exercise; that a balance of 4, 200 dollars which was not spent has been returned to the president by the current chairman.
What the nation wants the SoS for Local Government to explain is the reason for the president’s intervention when 120 million dalasi had already been allocated to the IEC?
Interestingly enough the IEC submitted a budget amounting to D33, 498, 70 (thirty-three million, four hundred and ninety-eight thousand seven hundred and four dalasis for the conduct of deletion exercise, supplementary registration of voters, Presidential election, National Assembly election and Local Government elections.
Despite the availability of 120 million in the books only 31, 045, 093 was provided by the government.
Why was there any need for the president to give assistance? Was the money approved by parliament merely on paper? Was it really available? We hope the Secretary of State for Local Government and Finance will help us to answer these questions. Financial independence is the first stage of guaranteeing the integrity of the IEC.
Source: Foroyaa Newspaper Burning Issue
Issue No. 37/2007, 30th March – 1st April 2007
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A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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