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. _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>> To view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>