The joint mission deployed on Gambia’s territory a short delegation of 5 international observers and 10 domestic observers, within the framework of the National Assembly election of April 09, 2022.
“Our mission has already been presented during the presidential election of December 04, 2021 in the Gambian Republic,” the statement read.
However, the statement added that the general objective of the mission falls within the framework of the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation (UN, October 27, 2005), the promotion of credible elections and good governance in Africa as well as the legal framework of the presidential election in the Republic of the Gambia.
According to the statement, the Joint Mission formulates its preliminary conclusions, on the course of the process, in all impartiality and would continue to observe the post-electoral aspects until the confirmation of the results.
“Subsequently, the mission will publish in the coming days, a detailed final report to the Gambian authorities, to all the actors involved in the process and to the international community on all the phases of the election of April 2022 in the Republic of the Gambia.”
The Joint Mission generally revealed that the National Assembly campaign was peaceful while commended the impartial role of the Inter-Party Committee (IPC), in coordinating the relationship and serving as a dialogue platform among other political parties.
However, the Joint Mission of Afrique Espérance and IEOMANA notes that the vote was, on the whole, well conducted.
In general, the mission team notes the transparent and consensual nature of the counting and announcement of partial results at the polling stations in the presence of representatives of the candidates, election observers and the public.
“No major incident likely to significantly disturb the sincerity of the vote was noted by the observers from Afrique Espérance and IEOMANA.”
The team, however, observed the conduct of the voting in an atmosphere of peace, tranquillity and the prompt reaction of the IEC which allowed the correction of some malfunctions.
The team also observed massive and reassuring presence of national and international election observation missions as well as the good media coverage of the poll.
As part of its recommendations, the team recommended that IEC should keep frequent communication flow with the general public at all levels throughout the electoral process.
The team recommended that political actors should observe the provisions of the Electoral laws, the Code of Conduct of political parties and the voluntary code of conduct by candidates.
To the defence and security forces, the team recommended for more deployment and their discretion to ensure the smooth running of the election.
The observer mission team also recommended IEC staffs to vote in advance in order to be prepared to better supervise the voting day.
