Friends, this is from "The Point" and "The Independent"

do we see the governments first attemt to postpone the already  announced
election-terms ? I said it few days after the april incident, that I was
expecting something to postpone elections. I´m not saying that the
government will do so, but ....

And I have also been waiting the past week for the coroners report (
conclusions to be published.

Asbjørn Nordam

From the Point
"The majority leader at the National Assembly Tamsir Jallow has said that
the Independent Electoral Commission, IEC  has no jurisdiction whatsoever to
fix a date for the Local Government Elections without consulting the
government.

Mr. Jallow indicated that the IEC can only fix a date in consultation with
government, adding that even the legislation has not been passed in the
National Assembly, then why the date.

He said the legislation has to be processed in the Assembly before thinking
of elections.

"The IEC is financed by the taxpayers and the government is mandated to
protect the taxpayers money. Then why should they do things without
consulting the government in power. I was not aware of any consultations. I
think the IEC should be asked  how they arrived at the November date for the
local government elections when the bill has not be put into law," he
intimated."
(....)
"On Decree 89, Hon Jallow said when the motion for Decree 89 came to the
National Assembly they thought  it was not prudent to pass the bill, that
was why they did not accept it. "That's democracy," he said.

Meanwhile, when contacted the IEC's secretary and Administrator of the
Commissio, Kawsu Ceesay, said the IEC has the mandate to fix dates for
elections as clearly stipulated in the Constitution.

He said the National Assembly has the responsibility to work on the
modalities of how it's to be conducted, the necessary tools involved.

He said the date has been fixed tentatively depending whether the
legislation will be ready for them to conduct the elections.

"The fixing of dates is in the purview of the IEC, so we don't need to
consult any body whatsoever. We are independent and we must act
independently. I think that statement is misleading," he said.

Mr. Ceesay added that they are still waiting for the legislation so that the
election is conducted"


From The Independent
"The Coroner was appointed on 17th April and concluded his hearings a few
weeks ago. It was announced that the report of the Coroner's findings would
be released on 15th May. People both inside The Gambia and in many parts of
the world have been eagerly waiting for these findings. But 15th May has
come and gone and there has been nothing but silence from the government on
the matter." 
(...)
 "Many grieving parents and relatives of the dead overcame their distress to
attend the hearings, give evidence and even question witnesses to ensure the
Inquest was thorough".

"The government's silence on their failure to release the report as
scheduled is puzzling. What is the problem? If either the Coroner or the
government needs more time, then why not announce this publicly explaining
the reasons and thereby setting people's minds at rest?"

"As we have reported today, many people are very dissatisfied with this
unexplained delay. It has led some to question the potential effectiveness
of the Commission of Enquiry that began its hearings on Wednesday."

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