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This is from the Observer online. Hope you find it useful.

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ELECTION DATES ANNOUNCED 

The long-awaited local government elections will now be held on Thursday, November 16, 2000. 

The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has also announced that the presidential election has been slated for Thursday, October 18, 2001 while the National Assembly election will be held on Thursday, January 17, 2002. 

The announcements were made yesterday by the chairman of the IEC, S Tilewa Johnson, at a press conference in which  the final demarcation of constituency boundaries report was unveiled. The IEC presented the report to the National Assembly on Monday for approval. 

The final demarcation results as submitted to the assembly indicate that Banjul now has two constituencies and nine wards; Kanifing, nine constituencies and eighteen wards; Brikama ten constituencies and twenty four wards; Kerewan, seven constituencies and nineteen wards; Mansakonko, three constituencies and nineteen wards; Janjangbureh, seven constituencies and thirty wards; Basse, seven constituencies and eighteen wards. 

The IEC chairman said even though the constituencies and wards per administrative area have not changed much from the earlier draft, a number of amendments have been made in the definition of boundaries. 

He said the aim of the changes was to enable the IEC to obtain the number of inhabitants that are closer to the national and regional average figures.  

During the forthcoming elections, the IEC chairman disclosed that the changes in the constituency boundaries would not mean re-registering the entire voter population.  Instead, he said, "We are proposing an expanded voter replacement exercise." 

That way, Mr Johnson said, people would only have to surrender their old voter cards to be issued with the appropriate one. 

He said they are discussing with one of their donors to fund this exercise.  The IEC chairman admitted that the last elections were not perfect, especially in the area of access to the public media.  However, he said, in the forthcoming campaigns, things would be different. 

Present at the press conference were IEC members, Saja Fatty, Fanny Freeman, Fatmatta Baldeh-Njie and Mustapha Carayol.