. On the long awaited local government elections Halifa Sallah calls for pressure on the executive THalifa Sallah of the Peoples Democratic Organisation of Independence and Socialism (PDOIS) has called for pressure to be put on the executive to take the local government bill before the National Assembly for enactment. Speaking to The Independent, Mr. Sallah indicated that the old local government laws contravene the autonomy required by the constitution as far as the councils are concerned. He pointed out that section 28 of the Local Government Act empowers the President to dissolve the councils and appoint an administrator. He said 'we really do not want to go back to such a situation'. He said it is clearly stipulated in section 28 (4) of the Act, which says 'A person or persons appointed shall from the date of publication of he notice in the gazette have all the necessary powers, for the performance of their duty, function or responsibility to which such appointment relate and the council shall be divested such powers during the period of such appointment.' Moreover, Mr.Sallah said actions of the council must get the minister's approval while he said the constitution envisages autonomous councils. 'Elections are meant for the people to select their representatives to perform functions that should be stipulated by law. The questions worth asking are; who is qualified to run for elections? What would be their functions? How long are they to stay in office? These questions should be addressed before any meaningful elections take place,' Mr. Sallah emphasised. He also said even if the IEC was to stick to the changed date for the local government elections, there would be no law to guide the people elected, which he said is a problem. For his part, the Majority Leader in the National Assembly Tamsir Jallow said the IEC should not have changed the dates without the consent of the government. 'The IEC is independent but it should have a limit,' he stressed. He said they can fix election dates 'but where is the law for fixing elections?' he queried. He also said that there is an existing law for local government elections, 'unless they want to conduct elections with the proposed Local Government Act.' On whether one could accuse the IEC of promoting taxation without representation, Mr. Jallow remarked, 'taxation without representation are political jargons bandied about by the opposition. What is important is; are the people blatantly denied their rights? No, it is a process and it has a life-span, and if it has not concluded its cycle, it has not been concluded. Mr. Jallow also revealed that the APRC are 'well-prepared for the elections. 'Look; how can we be so naive to be in government when we do not prepare for elections. We (the government) finance elections and it is only the opposition that have a big mouth to say that they are well-prepared.' The Minority Leader in National Assembly Kemesseng Jammeh, said the UDP received the news of the deferral of the local government elections with 'disapproval.' In fact, he asserted, the elections are long over-due but they should be preceded by the relevant legislation which is to govern area councils. He accused the APRC government of 'dragging its feet' to introduce the bill to the National Assembly. ' The government has defaulted in its responsibilities to take the necessary action,' he said. He added that the UDP is well prepared for the elections as 'we are in a position to be able to field candidates for all administrative areas.' The NRP leader, Hamat Bah could not be reached for comments as he was on a tour of the Provinces,but a party official, Njobo Baldeh revealed that the IEC called all the political parties to a meeting at its headquarters last Thursday and chief among the discussions he said were the Sami chieftaincy elections and the local government elections vis-a-vis the proposed local government legislation. _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------