The Recommendations are repeated below: The Commission recommends that appropriate amendments be made to Sections 65 and 72 of the Elections Decree 1996. Section 65 States that polls during elections should commence at 7 a.m. and close at 6 p.m. In the last 5 elections (Sami Chieftaincy Election, Central Baddibu and Kiang East by-elections, Presidential Elections, National Assembly and Local Government Elections) the Commission has brought forward the closing time to 4 p.m. to allow enough light for the counting of votes. The commission has also consequently reduced the number of voters per polling station from 1,000 to not more than 800. With this arrangement, in most polling stations voting ended well before 4 p.m. Section 72 Makes it mandatory for ballot boxes to be transported to designated counting centres which appears to exclude the possibility of counting on the spot. The Commission recommends that this Section be re-written to Allow the possibility of counting on the spot. It is recommended the National Assembly enact legislation to allow the IEC to de-register political parties that are inactive. Enough and appropriate vehicles must be provided to ensure successful conduct of all electoral activities in The Gambia. Lack of provision of vehicles would reduce the Commission’s capacity to conduct elections. The provision of suitable and enough permanent physical facilities for the Commission is an urgent need. Some of the buildings currently being used as the Commission’s regional offices are old, dilapidated and temporary. The Commission attached to its last Report the architect’s drawings for the Commission’s headquarters and regional offices. It is recommended that the National Assembly supports its search for and the provision of funds for its building programme. Please note that on 28 October 2002, IEC submitted to GAMWORKS an appropriate project document to seek funding and support from our donor partners. The support of the National Assembly is being sought to expedite the process. It is recommended that greater powers be given to the IEC to enforce Campaign Ethics The IEC recognizes the need to enforce the campaign Code of Ethics and ensure that all parties comply with the regulations set out to promote peace, tolerance and orderliness, during the electoral process. During campaign periods, the IEC through budgeting should be allowed to cater for the hiring of independent monitors to monitor political party rallies and other meetings. The monitors will readily provide independent information to the IEC in the event of any breach of campaign ethics by any political party. IEC Advocates the Introduction of Proportional Representation into the Electoral System Since democracy at the national level is about representation of the people, the voice of minority groups need to be considered and taken onboard. It has been noticed while on election observation mission in the sub-region and elsewhere, that there is growing tendency for electoral systems in place to opt for ‘Proportional Representation’ in order to ensure that allocation of parliamentary seats encourages diversity of political opinion in Parliament or the National Assembly. The IEC therefore recommends that the electoral system in The Gambia be tailored to adopt the proportional representation system rather than the ‘first past the post’ as is currently the case in The Gambia. IEC feels the Elections Decree should be transformed into an Act. The participation of the IEC in regional and sub-regional election observation missions should be encouraged as much as possible to broaden the horizon in the delivery of election services and acquisition of ‘best practices’ in election administration and management. As international organizing bodies do not cover funding in some cases, the IEC finds itself incapable to take part in election observations missions in the sub-region. Where absolutely necessary, Government should assist. The IEC recommends that the National Assembly urgently passes an Act to replace the Elections decree, 1996, which was transitional electoral document, with an ‘Elections Act’. Comments: The Constitution does make provision for the financial independence of the IEC from the executive. Section 44 states, "The Independent Electoral Commission shall submit its annual estimates of expenditure to the President for presentation to the National Assembly in accordance with this Constitution. The President shall cause the estimates to be placed before the National Assembly without amendment, but may attach to them his/her own comments and observations." In short, the IEC is mandated to prepare its budget and forward it to the President who has no right to tamper with it and is obliged to forward it with or without his comments to the National Assembly. If the IEC takes advantage of this provision it would go a long way in meeting its financial needs. In other words they need not appeal to the executive to provide transport for them. If they see an urgent need for it they should simply include it in their estimate and check the estimate submitted to the National Assembly to ensure that the executive has not tampered with it. This financial independence is necessary for the IEC as a safeguard against financial arm-twisting by the executive. Representation of the people is a cardinal component of good governance, which must be taken seriously by all concerned. Hence adequate facilities must be provided for the IEC to do their work. If the IEC sees the need to build offices to facilitate its work and it cannot tap external funds, it should simply include it in its estimate and stop complaining. Issue No. 13/ 2004, 12-15 February, 2004 EDITORIAL Inflation Continues To Bite President Jammeh Continues To Pretend Inflation continues to bite deep into the pockets of most Gambians who are finding it increasingly difficult to meet their vital needs for survival. Instead of acknowledging that the present economic crisis is a consequence of the failed economic policies pursued by his regime, President Jammeh puts the blame squarely on unscrupulous businesspersons (including retailers) for selling at exorbitant prices. Based on this premise he launched "Operation No Compromise" purportedly to control prices, among other things by taking a militarist approach. Recent days have witnessed hikes in the prices of flour, bread, palm oil and other items. The price hikes are often accompanied by scarcity. The attempt to force down the prices of essential commodities or locally produced commodities has not worked. On the contrary, it often leads to scarcity. Arrests or threats by the police or other authorities over even vigilante groups often scare off retailers from their market stalls. Some stop trading in that commodity while others hoard. The end result is scarcity and increased hardship. For example on Wednesday, when our reporter visited various markets she could find no palm oil because vendors were scared to sell it at D14 or D15 per cup. The attempt to force butchers to sell meat at D35-40 has failed. Now, meat is being sold at D60-70. A bag of rice is now D420. A breadwinner buys a bag of rice and spends D25 per day or D750 per month for breakfast, fish and ingredients could require D1170 just to feed his/her family, excluding rent, medication, schooling, etc. This exceeds the monthly income of most employees. The consequence of this is poor diet and malnutrition. There is need to come up with a policy that would revitalize the ailing economy and to enable us to have three square meals a day and improve their livelihood generally. President Jammeh’s regime relies on the private sector to revitalize the economy. But the private sector does not find it profitable and has not significantly invested in the productive sector. Thus in the year 2003, imports exceeded D4 billion while exports were less than D100 million. This has impacted on foreign exchange rates and prices. What alternative has President Jammeh, given that prices of imported commodities cannot be reduced as long as the world market prices remain the same and the exchange rate of the dalasi continues to depreciate or even remain stagnant? In the face of his failed economic policies President Jammeh must stop pretending. If he really wants to control prices he can simply present a Bill at the National Assembly to empower him to force the vendors to sell at controlled prices. In light of his inability to give fresh life to the economy, what is prudent is for him to compromise or dialogue with the business community to ensure reasonable prices and availability of commodities. "Operation No Compromise" is only leading us to continued inflation, scarcity and repression. The Last Part Of Sidia’s Input On The Budget 2004. Development Cannot Take Place In A Fettered Situation! Says Sidia On The Bamako Initiative My contention about the Bamako Initiative is that, it is the people who pay tax, so there is nothing like free service. No government is giving free service anywhere because all that government is doing is money generated by the people, so it is not free. I’m saying that the people pay taxes for these services to be given to them, yet you ask them to dip their hands into their pockets and buy this and that. Then what about the money they have provided for that service? If you want the people to assume the responsibility of owning their health centres, then you must give them the money they provided for the services to be done. If you fail to do that, then I am not in agreement. That’s why all the attempts to implement "The Bamako Initiative" has been a fiasco. They attempted it in Bajakunda and one man said he was not going to pay D10. In the first place, even if it is going to take place, there should be a legal framework within which it will operate. You cannot just ask! the people to assume their responsibility and then start imposing money on them without a legal framework, it is impossible! People must assume their responsibilities, yes, but the people must not be only given political power but also economic power to do it. If you do it that way, then it will work. To wind up Mr. Speaker, as I said in the beginning, development is a process and it is a collective enterprise. We, who are citizens of the Republic, we who are Members of this National Assembly have a crucial role to play because it is our responsibility to scrutinize every butut that is injected into this development fund. Be it a project, a loan, or whatever. That is our responsibility and that is why we have a project monitoring committee in this National Assembly, which is also doing its job. It is only once that they have gone round to see projects. So the committee must assume that responsibility to begin to monitor all these projects, particularly the loans we have approved for projects. We must follow them and see what is happening so that next time, when a loan is brought here for a project, we know what to say and what to do. Mr. Speaker, development cannot take place in a fettered situation. People must be free, they must have their freedom to talk and to act. People must have their freedom to talk not negatively but to express their views about everything that is going on in this country. It is my right to express my view about everything in this country and if I can make a contribution to make a change, I’ll make it. But I should not be fettered and my voice should not be muffled by anybody. If we do that, then the type of democracy that you talked about cannot come about. But as long as the people have fear to do things or even to think of to say what they think, then there is a problem. The media is there for all of us and the constitution is very clear on that. All the views must be represented on the media. This is the only way forward. After all we are all Gambians. There is no Gambian however evil he/she maybe, who wishes evil for this Republic. We are all in the same house and we wan! t this house to be good. But we must tighten our belts. The honesty and frankness with which this budget is presented, that honesty and frankness must continue so that we can be able to deal with the crucial problems that the Secretary of State for Finance and Economic Affairs talked about. THE END _________________________________________________________________ Store more e-mails with MSN Hotmail Extra Storage – 4 plans to choose from! http://click.atdmt.com/AVE/go/onm00200362ave/direct/01/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~