dThe retreat is meant to enable NAMs to hear facts and figures, ask questions, and seek clarifications on all practical, operational and logistical aspects of diaspora voting and representation.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Professor Gibril Faal, OBE, Programme Director MSDG Project and GK Partners, said diaspora voting has been in the 1997 Constitution since its inception, stating that the focus now is on the practicality of making diaspora voting and representation a reality. "The question of it being a right is a settled matter," he noted.
"Most of the provisions that are needed for this are already in the Elections Bill. We kindly ask you members of parliament not to amend any of those provisions, it has already gone through the relevant joint committee and what they found was appropriate as it was provided."
He alluded that it is injustice to continue to deny about 175,000 electorates their voting rights "as this number is taking a big chunk of some region in the country and the outrage of this is beyond contemplation," he added.
"We kindly ask you to give these people their right to vote and represent."
Dawda A.A. Jallow, the Attorney General and Minister for Justice, explained that the right to participate in election are two prone; the right to vote and the right to contest to be voted for. "If we deal with other constitutional amendment; section 90 is critical because that's what qualifies you to contest. So even if the diaspora is demarcated into constituencies, if we don't amend section 90 of the constitution they will only have one of the two rights mentioned; that is the right to vote and not to be voted for which will defeat the whole purpose of effective participation and true representation."
Hon Madi Ceesay, the deputy minority leader and co-chair of Election Bill Joint Committee, and also the chair of the Select Committee of Regional Government, Lands and Ombudsman of National Assembly, said providing people of the diaspora the opportunity to vote is giving them their constitutional right which is long overdue. “Therefore, we as parliamentarians are ready to do the needful and ensure that their right is given to them. We will want that be part of our legacy as the sixth legislature."
