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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.