As I promised yesterday, here is the full press release of the IEC
concerning the UDP explanations of why they and the PPP and GPP are
boycotting the forthcoming National Assembly elections and subsequent
elections.
As I had to type this myself, I would like to take full responsibility of
any typos, grammar etc. As such, I will re-visit any section that may seem
not to be clear.
Have a good day, Gassa.
UDP ALLEGATIONS ARE BASELESS
Following widely-circulated accusations and a press release by the United
Democratic Party that the recent Transfers of Voters, and the Replacement of
Voters Cards Exercise conducted by the Independent Electoral Commission was
“very seriously flawed”, the commission hereby wish to make it known to all
Gambians that these accusations and the subsequent action of boycotting the
National Assembly Elections were not only unfounded, but lacked sincerity
and goodwill.
Since the establishment of the IEC under the 1997 constitution, it has
become part of the electoral practice for voters to be given opportunity to
pay for and replace lost or mutilated voters cards, and also transfer their
votes from one polling station to another within or out of the constituency
in which they were previously registered.
This practice, which is in complete compliance with section 35 of the
Election Decree of 1996 gives opportunity for voters who may have changed
residence or who otherwise wish to change their vote to their place of birth
to do so. The applicable section of the election decree reads:
SECTION 35.
(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in this part, a registered voter may
at any time, if he ceases to be resident in the constituency in which he is
registered as a voter, make application in accordance with form 9 of
schedule III to the commission for his name to be transferred to the
constituency in which he has now become resident.
(2) A registered voter seeking a transfer under this section shall pay the
prescribed fee and attach to his application two recent identical
photographs of himself together with his current voting card.
(3) A registered voter whose voting card has been lost, stolen or mutilated
shall before applying for a transfer under this section, apply for a
replacement of his voting card.
The UDP statement that it “has become aware of the peculiar and special
exercise embarked upon by the IEC to allow massive transfers of voters from
one constituency to another barely two months after the presidential
elections….”, can only therefore aim to deliberately mislead public opinion
and discolour an otherwise legal and beneficial exercise of the electoral
process.
At the end of the exercise, IEC made the results available for public
consumption through the media, and the results were as follows:
Transfers Replacements
Banjul Administrative Area:
1. Banjul North Constituency 20 3
2. Banjul Central Constituency 6 6
3. Banjul South Constituency 7 2
Total for the area 33 11
Kanifing Administrative Area:
1. Bakau Constituency 68 8
2. Jeshwang Constituency 11 6
3. Sere Kunda Central Constituency 34 7
4. Sere Kunda East Constituency 27 12
5. Sere Kunda West Constituency 2 3
Total for the area 142 36
Brikama Administrative Area:
1. Foni Bintang Constituency 2 nil
2. Foni Bondali Constituency 1 1
3. Foni Berefet Constituency 8 nil
4. Foni Jarol Constituency 2 nil
5. Foni Kansala Constituency 8 nil
6. Kombo Central Constituency 9 1
7. Kombo North Constituency 2 2
8. Kombo South Constituency 41 6
9. Kombo East Constituency 5 2
Total for the area 78 12
Mansa Konko Administrative Area:
1. Kiang West Constituency 12 nil
2. Kiang Central Constituency 4 nil
3. Kiang East Constituency 8 1
4. Jarra Central Constituency 50 1
5. Jarra East Constituency 10 3
6. Jarra West Constituency 214 10
Total for the area 298 15
Kerewan Administrative Area:
1. Lower Niumi Constituency 2 nil
2. Upper Niumi Constituency 8 nil
3. Jokadu Constituency 2 nil
4. Sabach Sanjal Constituency nil nil
5. Illiassa Constituency 3 nil
6. Lower Baddibu Constituency 13 nil
7. Central Baddibu Constituency 135 nil
Total for the area 163 nil
Janjanbureh Administrative Area:
1. Niamina East Constituency nil 1
2. Niamina West Constituency 6 nil
3. Niamina Dankunku Constituency 1 nil
4. Janjanbureh Constituency 12 3
5. Lower Fulladu West Constituency 5 nil
6. Upper Fulladu West Constituency 15 1
7. Sami Constituency nil 1
8. Upper Saloum Constituency 618(47) nil
9. Lower Saloum Constituency 5 1
10. Niani Constituency 4 nil
11. Nianija Constituency nil nil
Total for the area 666 7
Basse Administrative Area:
1. Sandu Constituency 8 nil
2. Wuli West Constituency 3 1
3. Wuli East Constituency 7 1
4. Kantora Constituency 5 2
5. Basse Constituency 3 3
6. Tumana Constituency 15 2
7. Jimara Constituency 15 1
Total for the area 56 10
GRAND TOTAL 1,436 (865) 91
There were certainly no instances of “voters suddenly shifting in their
thousands from one constituency to another”; another accusation of the UDP
that raises questions on the accuracy, sincerity and goodwill of the UDP
claims. For our of a total voter populations of 509,301 registered voters
countrywide, only 1,436 voters opted to transfer their vote from one
constituency to another and 91 lost cards replaced.
The party definitely cannot claim that it lacks access to accurate
information, since the press statement was issued (dated) 20th December
2001, by which time the results had been made public. Even if by then they
had not received the information they could have requested like every other
party does for information from the IEC. This act can only be seen as a
deliberate attempt to dishonour the IEC and to legitimize their ill-advised
political boycott.
The Independent Electoral Commission is, and has always been a very open and
transparent institution. No political party or candidate can claim that the
IEC has at any point withheld information from them. Our practice is to
regularly invite political parties to discuss political issues, and also
invite members of the press for press briefings where all kinds of questions
are entertained. We also as a regular practice make available all members of
the commission as well as a senior management and regional staff to live
phone-in television and radio programmes where questions of all shades from
the general public are responded to in all major languages spoken locally.
The UDP mad no report of irregularity in the transfer and replacement
exercise to the IEC. As a matter of fact, several candidates had already
been processed to contest the National Assembly Elections on the UDP ticket
by the date the press release announcing the boycott was issued.
There was only one claim of irregularity in the transfers brought to the
notice of the IEC during the exercise, and this was done by the National
Reconciliation Party and for the upper Saloum constituency which received
transfers of 618 voters. The commission immediately issued directives for
the claims to be investigated and it was discovered that out of the 618
voters that transferred their vote to the constituency, 571 had not paid the
prescribed fee of D50.00 by the end of the period scheduled for the
exercise.
Investigations revealed that the IEC official responsible for the area had
allowed these people to be transferred to the constituency based upon a
promise from their sponsors that the fees would be paid, even though the
fees should have been paid at the point of transfer.
The commission reviewed the applications and even though these people had
met all other qualifications to transfer, decided to cancel their transfers
since the fees had not been paid by the close of the period. The commission
went further to issue a very firm warning to all regional electoral officers
and in particular the officer concerned, to adhere strictly to the rules.
With the reduction of the disqualified 571 transfers, the total number of
transfers countrywide is only 865 votes.
The UDP by its constant accusations and press statements attempts to incite
public opinion against the legitimacy of the current register of voters.
These registers were compiled only last year when the IEC found it necessary
to discard the previous register and recompile a new register of voters with
the aim to capture more detailed information on votes and be better
positioned to accommodate future demarcations and changes in boundary
delineations; and in particular the Local government Elections.
The exercise was carried out under the full scrutiny of the UDP and other
parties, and in conformity with the electoral laws. The laws provided for
applicants to present themselves in person with documents authenticating
their citizenship, and even with these documents the IEC official still had
the mandate to interrogate and reject any applicant that does not satisfy
their cross-examination.
The laws further provided for persons who believed they were unjustifiably
refused a voter card to appeal, as well as others who believed that
unqualified persons received voting cards to object, at magistrate courts
set up across the country by the chief justice. The UDP in trying to justify
its claims also accuses the judiciary of being “very ineffective” in its
adjudication.
The development of the new register of voters used for the Presidential
Elections was funded by the British Government under the Department for
International Development (DFID). Right through the exercise, the IEC was
beset by the lack of a qualified local official to run the computer systems,
even after many attempts to recruit. The exercise was therefore supervised
by a british consultant provided by DFID, whose terminal report dated 23rd
October 2001 noted the margin of error that prevailed in the database, which
would have been dealt with if there was a sufficiently qualified local
counterpart.
The report, which was also copied to the British High Commission indicated;
“the voter register for the October 18th election was finally issued on14th
October. This was about 99 % accurate, with about 5,000 mistakes in about
510,000 registered votes. This could have meant single polling stations with
significant problems, but there were no major incidents on the day”.
It was based on this consultant’s advice that the commission had decided to
allow voters whose names were not on the register of votes but whose names
were on the counterfoils of the voter registration forms to cast their vote.
These counterfoils are the original documents and indeed the most authentic
documents from which the voter registers were compiled, so the decision of
the commission was that voters who presented their cards and whose details
matched the counterfoils, as these could not be victimized for shortcomings
in the computer systems.
It is unfair for UDP to claim that “the IEC equally rejected the
participation of some seventy five thousand Gambians who work and live
abroad”. The commission was the first to announce publicly its intension to
register Gambians resident overseas and immediately commenced a feasibility
study with Gambia’s foreign missions. After much effort had been expended on
extensive communications and research, it was deemed unfeasible to conduct
their registration concurrently with the local registration, especially in
view of the problems that were being encountered with the local process.
The IEC has never at any time claimed to be perfect; indeed no institution
is perfect. But it has brought transformations and conducted elections that
have been unprecedented in the history of The Gambia. Gambia’s oldest and
most experienced politician, in accepting defeat in the presidential
elections called it the “free-est, fairest, and most transparent elections
in the history of The Gambia”, these sentiments repeated by ALL local and
international observers group at the elections. Indeed the UDP party leader
and presidential candidate was the first person to accept defeat and
congratulated the winner even before the final results were announced.
How could the UDP led coalition be forced into a situation of participating
in the presidential elections as claimed? And then why go to all the extent
of congratulating the winner if the registration process was “seriously
flawed”? The boycott of the National Assembly elections was done at the 11th
hour, if the presidential elections was flawed they could have been
boycotted in a similar manner.
The UDP’s decision not to “participate in the forthcoming National assembly
elections be it local government, presidential or otherwise until such a
time that the register of voters is revamped and the number of aliens
expunged therefrom” cannot in any way be given weight as the party has a
record of deliberately trying to misinform and mislead opinions to their
advantage.
Gabriel J. Roberts,
Chairman.
There you have it ladies and gentlemen of the list.
_________________________________________________________________
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