According to Ebrima Sorrie Bah, the secretary general of the organisation, it is alleged that the mayoress of Banjul Rohey Malick Lowe “went outside her jurisdiction to offer attestation to non-Banjulians with the view to giving more power to the United Democratic Party’s support base in her capacity as a UDP elected mayoress.”
“IEC is 100% complicit to all the irregularities happening in the country as far as voter registration is concerned because as the custodian of voters registration, they should have made sure voter registration is highly transparent and corresponds to the dictates of the constitution,” he said.
“We are seriously surprised to see the Independent Electoral Commission of The Gambia allow such unconstitutionality happen in this country by allowing a mayoress voted by a particular political party issuing voter attestation,” he noted.
The secretary general pointed out that The Gambia For 5 Years is hereby condemning both the IEC and the Mayoress of Banjul to cease from the act while the already issued attestations to be notified/ nullified and also that the IEC should avoid anything that could spark controversy in this country.
He added that the IEC should resort to traditional and consensus means by consulting both the Muslim and Christian religious leaders in Banjul as every district in Banjul has elders who could safeguard any form of disfranchisement and the voter registration irregularities happening right now.
“We are also concerned over the ill equipped and limited IEC staffs on the ground who may not be able to reach the projected voter registration which as a result, the IEC should redouble their efforts to make sure they increase the number of staff on the ground” he said.
“It is disheartening to understand that only one polling team from the IEC is handling voter registration in a town like Brufut as well as a center like Basse.”
