From The Independent


The election was neither free nor fair Assan Musa Camara challenges IEC

The chairman of the opposition coalition Assan Musa Camara has said that the
presidential election was “neither free nor fair by all democratic
standards.” In his first pubic reaction since the election results were
announced Mr. Camara told The Independent that in his capacity as the
coalition’s chairman, he “cannot accept the election as free and fair since
the violence on the eve of the election resulted in the shooting of an
opposition supporter.”

According to Assan Camara, he was leading the coalition campaign in the
Baddibus when APRC supporters attacked their campaign team, a matter, which
he claimed, was reported to the police but no action was taken. Camara
further explained that cases of violence against opposition supporters were
also reported around the country. “An election where opposition supporters
were arrested and consequently detained leading to their inability to vote
cannot be called free and fair,” he alleged.

On the registration of voters, Mr Camara said that prior to the election,
the opposition had informed the IEC that there has been a further
registration of voters despite the fact that registration had closed. This
he said resulted in the situation where some people wee given voter cards
even though their names were not on the register. “The opposition had
insisted before the election that any person with a voter’s card whose name
is not on the registers should not be allowed to vote, and the IEC had
accepted the point,” Camara asserted. According to the opposition chairman
the IEC had issued out directives through the media that anybody who is in
possession of a voter’s card but whose name is not on the registers should
not vote. “Surprisingly the IEC again issued contrary directives on the eve
of the election to all election officials that they should allow those
people whose names are not on the register to vote.”

The opposition coalition stalwart insisted that it was this situation that
resulted in a surplus of voters during the counting of results. “When I
checked the results, I found out that there was a surplus of voters varying
from one constituency to another, if you add them up, you find that they are
substantial and could have benefited one party,” he said. “I cannot accept
this as small errors nor do I accept the mistakes that were made in the US
Presidential Election to be repeated here” he pointed out.

The veteran politician called on the IEC to explain why they changed their
minds on this issue “at the late hour after the matter had been agreed
upon.” Camara again reiterated his position that he supports Opposition
Coalition flag-bearer Lawyer Darboe conceding defeat. Assan Musa Camara
called on the Jammeh administration “to institute an enquiry and investigate
the killing of a coalition supporter and the arson attack on the house of an
APRC parliamentarian.





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