#Headlines

Madi applauds IEC for 'diligent, efficient' work in the 'smooth' voter registration

Jun 11, 2021, 5:23 PM | Article By: Sankulleh Gibril Janko

Renowned human rights activist Madi Jobarteh has applauded the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) for the way it has conducted the national voter registration exercise so far.

Speaking at a press conference organised by the Civil Society Organisation (CSO) Coalition on elections on its preliminary report on the observation of the voter registration on Wednesday, Mr. Jobarteh credited the commission for the smooth process.

"At this point overall what we can also say is the exercise is going smoothly largely and the credit goes to IEC as a body running this exercise. 

"I think what's also noticed overall is their polling staff, they are on time, they are doing their work as diligently and efficiently as possible. 

"And you can see the first week of their report they said like 191 plus thousand so that means some serious work is taking place by their staff.

 "So we need to commend them as well for that kind of work that they are doing."

The CSO report meanwhile also commended the electoral commission for allowing party agents to access the democratic process.

"The majority of registration centers visited had a number of party agents present- mostly representing APRC, PDOIS, GDC, NPP and UDP and were given access to observe, which demonstrates transparency," the report reads.

The report however observed temporary technical issues especially in the early days and most notably in Somita Foni Bintang Constituency, West Coast Region where registration was halted because the printer was not functioning before it was taken to Brikama for replacement.

The report described the overall voter registration as a generally peaceful and calm environment.