AU Observer  Mission hails  Gambian media

This respect expressed by the mission towards the Gambian media fraternity was made known at a press-release by the AUEOM at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara International at Bijilo on Monday.

According to the mission, the Gambia enjoys an improved, vibrant and diverse media, which allows for free expression of opinions, with six active newspapers, over 50 radio stations and eight television stations.

“AUEOM observes that media houses such as Star TV, GRTS and Paradise TV cover election-related programmes, campaigns and political adverts. The GRTS also provided a 25 minute per day platform to all political parties and candidates to publicise their policies in two languages.” 

The mission revealed that it received concerns of hate speech but made it known that that was in most cases through social media platforms. Whatever may be the case, the Mission stated all the presidential candidates had equal access to the Gambian public media, including radio and television.

AUEOM deployed 70 observers in 15 constituencies across the country. They visited a total of 298 polling stations on Election Day to observe the opening, voting, closing and counting procedures in their areas of deployment, with 55% in urban and 45% in rural areas. Overall, the atmosphere throughout Election Day remained peaceful.

The AU mission saluted the passing of the Information Bill into law by The Gambia on 25 August 2021. It stated that the Access to Information Act allows members of the public to obtain information from public institutions and ensure transparency and accountability and an opportunity for citizens to participate in the governance of the country.

On the election, AUEOM stated that what they have found was that “the voting process was peaceful with polling staff and voters’ commitment and a sense of professionalism. Party agents were present in some polling centers visited while the presence of citizen observers was not consistent. International observers were present. Party agents and observers were given access to the polling stations without restrictions. Significant participation of women as polling staff was observed. There was no consistent compliance with covid-19 prevention measures.”

“The AUEOM is hopeful that the peaceful character of the 2021 Presidential election will consolidate this tradition. The AUEOM further encourages all stakeholders to sustain the prevailing peace in the remaining phase of the electoral process.”

“Based on its pre-election assessment and Election Day findings, the AUEOM concludes that the election was conducted in a peaceful and democratic political environment and conforms to national and international standards.”

Finally, AUEOM commends the government and the people of the Gambia, the IEC, political parties, candidates and their supporters for their peaceful conduct before and during the polling.