The alleged acts have stirred raged and attracted condemnation, which are reasonable and justifiable in any sane society.
To be particular, electoral fraud, at times referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud or vote rigging, entails illegal interference with the electioneering process, either by increasing the vote share of a favoured candidate, depressing the vote share of rival candidates, vote-buying and the likes.
Vote buying occurs when a political party or candidate seeks to buy the vote of a voter in an upcoming election. Vote buying can take various forms such as a monetary exchange, as well as an exchange for necessary goods or services. This practice is often used to incentivize or persuade voters to turn out to elections and vote in a particular way.
So far, evidence has not yet surfaced, though some parties have said that they have evidence, the Independent Electoral Commission has not commented to shed light on the issue, and, equally, this medium has not been to confirm the veracity of such claims. However, we are of the opinion that vote-buying, offering of inducement, amongst others, which are all part and parcel of electoral fraud, are detrimental to the democracy we have regained after two decades of tough struggle.
All these have been outlawed by the country’s Election Act due to their detrimental consequences. Although technically the term "electoral fraud" covers only those acts which are illegal, the term is sometimes used to describe acts which are legal but considered morally unacceptable, outside the spirit of an election or in violation of the principles of democracy.
One of the ways in which this is detrimental to any democracy, whether it is The Gambia and any other country, is it could trigger disunity and chaos as the citizenry and those opposing parties may feel that their right to fairness has been violated and may sort to protest and civil disobedience. This is not something The Gambia needs at the moment, as we could all recall the impasse.
Most importantly, even a small amount of fraud may suffice to change the entire result, thereby putting into positions people who are not really chosen by the people. This has the tendency to put in public places people who are grossly incompetent and ineffective, and as far as this is concerned there is nothing more gross wrongdoing and corruption than this, especially when it varied out by the party in power.
Thus, as the body vested with the powers of handling issues relating to the electoral process, the IEC needs to step up and put in place measures to ensure that such, if at all they happen, do not repeat themselves or are at least minimised as best as possible. The dormancy with which it has responded to such allegations is alarming. At least there should have been a dispatch urging individuals to desist from such acts.
The police, CSOs must also work towards ensuring such a history in this country for a better Gambia.