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kajaw
70 Posts |
 Posted - 19 Jul 2006 : 01:06:42
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TOWARDS COMPROMISING THE INDEPENDENCE AND IMPARTIALITY OF THE IEC-Halifa Sallah
TOWARDS COMPROMISING THE INDEPENDENCE AND
IMPARTIALITY OF THE IEC
There are constitutional and unconstitutional means of changing governments. Africa has made its choice. No government will be accommodated that comes to power by unconstitutional means and no government will be tolerated that seeks to exist by unconstitutional means. This is the verdict of the 21st Century and it is irrevocable.
Mr. Chairman, a constitutional means of assuming control of government is not conceivable without a free and fair voting system. Independent Electoral Commissions are established to ensure that constitutional governments manifest the unalloyed choice of the people.
It can therefore be stated without any fear of exaggeration that your institution is the moral guarantor of peace, stability and constitutional order. Herein lies the weight on the head of the IEC Commissioners.
This is why you are given constitutional powers. Section 43 (3) of the Constitution states categorically that “In the exercise of its functions under the constitution or any other law, the Commission shall not be subjected to the direction or control of any other person or authority.”
It is abundantly clear that you as commissioners of the IEC should not be subjected to any direction or control by any other authority except the Constitution of the Republic.
This is why we were overwhelmed by your comments over radio and TV that you had to “consult the President who is the biggest stakeholder, the incumbent and his team of experts” without taking any initiative to consult the opposition parties at the highest level. It goes without saying that our agents were left in a state of limbo when registration stopped abruptly under the pretext that films were not available. Your subsequent announcement that you were considering an extension of the registration after your visit to the President, left our people in a state of suspicion. This is all the more so when the TV cameras were focused on people in Tallinding Kunjang who were protesting against your administration. Hardly do you find the state media focusing on the _expression of mass disaffection. We are highly suspicious that such manifestations were orchestrated by the APRC stalwarts in collaboration with those who are in charge of GRTS, to intimidate your administration.
Mr. Chairman, before the commencement of the registration exercise we conveyed to you the need for planning in consultation with all stake holders to make your institution credible. We emphasised to you that some elements were masterminding a scheme of mass distribution of ID cards through connections initiated by party chairpersons. We have identified a compound in Tallinding Kunjang commonly referred to as Tamba Kunda where ID cards were being issued. We have spared no effort in informing you that some party operatives had established tables close to registration centres where they issued Attestations to claimants who went directly to get voters’ cards which they took back to them for documentation. Our agents had to protest vigorously against such parallel operations which gave the impression that the party operatives were in control of the whole registration exercise. The Attestation became the primary vehicle for those who are underage or are non Gambian citizens to get voters’ cards. Needless to say, many double registrations also occurred. It is therefore no surprise that you have already registered 94,000 voters in a supplementary registration of voters. If you were to review the Attestation forms you will discover, as we have already discovered, that some Alkalos (Village heads) simply append their signatures and give the forms to party operatives to photocopy and then fill in names as they meet people who are interested in getting voters’ cards by any means.
The exhaustion of your films and other electoral materials is connected with the scale of corrupt registration practice that has been employed.
In our view, the nature of the electoral malpractices cannot be handled by a revising court alone. We therefore intend to take three pronged approaches.
The first approach is administrative. The second and third approaches would be judicial.
Administratively, your commission has grossly erred in many fronts which is costing the opposition immensely. For example, you have created the impression that when the IEC became short of registration materials it is the president who stepped in to provide the required resources. The APRC stalwarts have been packaging and sending this view across the nation to give the impression that you are under the dictate of the president. Infact, long before you went to the president and the declaration of the extension party stalwarts had announced at some registration centres that you will be influenced to extend the registration. The announcement made by the brother of the Alkalo of Serrekunda is just one example.
Mr. Chairman you must make an administrative rebuttal of your comment that the president provides resources to the IEC. The IEC is required to be financially independent. Section 44 states that “The Independent Electoral Commission shall submit its annual estimates of Expenditure to the President for presentation to the National Assembly in accordance with this constitution. The President shall cause the estimates to be placed before the National Assembly without amendment, but may attach to them his or her own comments and observations.” The IEC is financed by public funds from the tax money of the people and not from the private purse of an incumbent.
Seven months ago the National Assembly allocated 120 million dalasis to the IEC. This was supposed to be put under reserve. Where is this money? Why didn’t the IEC consult with the Inter Party Committee where all parties are represented to come up with a registration and electoral schedule.
With proper planning and consultation there can be no haphazard way of conducting registration. We want to know from the IEC what has happened to the 120 million. Has it been received? If not why did it proceed to fix dates for registration and elections without money. We therefore expect the IEC to address this issue. We also wish to propose the hiring of a consultant with the support of the international community to review all attestations to separate valid from invalid attestations. All those attestations that bear photocopied signatures should be weeded from the system.
Furthermore, signatures on attestations which tend to occur frequently on forms need to be scrutinized. We have witnessed young people with five ID cards on their tables which they rely on to fill attestation forms and put their own thumb prints. Such attestations need to be weeded from the system.
It goes without saying that no one should be registered as a voter more than once. All double registrations should be weeded out of the system. This is the first action point.
Secondly, Section 22 of the Elections Decree empowers a person to file objections within 14 days after the publication of the list of voters. We are prepared to file objections.
However, the huge volume of the corrupt registration practice will be a burden to the Chief Justice who is to appoint magistrates to preside over the revising courts.
Needless to say, Section 24 of the Elections Decree does not state how long it should take for the revising courts to be constituted after the list is published. It is left to the dictates of what is practicable.
Suffice it to say, the revising court is given sixty days to decide commencing on the day the objections are lodged in the revising court.
Mr. Chairman, registration is going to end on 21st July, 2006. How long will it take to compile the list of voters and post them in the appropriate places; that may be by the end of July. Add 14 days scrutiny and filing of objections to the exercise and that will take us to middle of August. If two months are added to this we will be catapulted to the 15th of October before the exercise is legally required to be completed.
Mr. Chairman, how can elections be held on 22 September when the original dates for closing registration has shifted twice. We the stakeholders are just left to the whims and caprices of your commission. Since the members of your commission can be dismissed anytime by the executive we in the opposition are not seen as significant in your decision making process. We strongly urge you to engage in strategic planning with all stakeholders regarding the objections and the election date.
Finally, the enormous volume of people registered so far is enough to confirm our original fears. I once took the government to the African Commission for registering people in urban areas without street names and compound numbers. The government made a commitment to rectify the system. Nothing has been done in that regard. Furthermore, Section 17 of the Elections Decree states that “A person who claims to be entitled to be registered as a voter in a constituency shall, on presenting himself at a registration centre be supplied a registration form in such form as may be prescribed by the commission in conjunction with the appropriate department of state”.
Mr. Chairman, No form has been provided by your commission to anyone during the registration exercise. A process is flawed if what is mandatory is honoured with disregard.
In this respect, we will begin legal consultation to question the legality of the whole exercise.
Mr. Chairman, the constitution is quite clear on what is required. Section 214 (2) states that “The people shall express their will and consent as to who shall govern them and how they shall be governed, through regular, free and fair elections of their representatives.”
Section 26(b) asserts that “Every citizen of the Gambia of full age and capacity shall have the right, without unreasonable restrictions to vote and stand for elections at genuine periodic elections for public office, which elections shall be by universal and equal suffrage and be held by secret ballot.” We have a right to genuine elections. A corrupt registration system is an anathema to free and fair elections.
All just and patriotic citizens should unite to correct the system.
Yours in the Service of The Nation
Halifa Sallah
For the NADD Executive
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kondorong
Gambia
4380 Posts |
Posted - 19 Jul 2006 : 01:10:41
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Kayjatta
i like your spirit. But you see the oposition cannnot bring any change while divided. It is their own making and they will face the music. I THINK NADD OR UDP OR WHATEVER THEIR NAMES ARE ON A LOOSING BATTLE. PERSONALLY I HAVE NOT GIVEN THEM ANY SERIOUS ATTENTION TO ANY PARTY. THEY ARE AS DIVIDED TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY.
I THINK FJC IS RIGHT WHEN SHE SAID THEY HATE EACH OTHER MORE THAN THEY HATE THE RULING PARTY.
"HE HO DIGGETH THE DITCH SHALL FALL IN IT " BOB MARLEY FORM THE SMALL AXE TRACK |
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kajaw
70 Posts |
Posted - 19 Jul 2006 : 01:11:17
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| This is what i have been trying to make you understand for ever. The electoral process is tainted. We can go for elections till we turn blue. The whole system is nonsense. It is a redeculous joke. The oposition protested to a leader of the independant commision and he begin to try to be fare and next thing you know, he is removed from office to be replaced by people close to the president. To call this an independant election is an insult to any one with an iota of sense |
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kondorong
Gambia
4380 Posts |
Posted - 19 Jul 2006 : 01:15:00
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| THAT IS WHY THE OPPOSITION NEEDED TO BE UNITED than being SELFISH. THEY OUGHT TO KNOW BETTER. I WILL NOT VOTE AND I WILL DISCOURAGE ANYONE I CAN INFLUENCE FROM VOTING. IT WILL ONLY LEGITIMISE AND ILLEGITIMATE PROCESS PERIOD |
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Janyanfara
Tanzania
1350 Posts |
Posted - 19 Jul 2006 : 01:46:21
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| THEY HAVE ALREADY LOST EVEN B4 THE VOTES. |
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kajaw
70 Posts |
Posted - 19 Jul 2006 : 01:54:00
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Even if the oposition is united, i do not see a chance for change not in this kind of leadership just as no one expects change in Zimbabwe or that no one was able to remove Idi Amin from power or Fedel or Gadaffi. What we are doing here is an exercise in futility. It might sound synical but it is in fact the truth. History has thought us that these kinds of governments are only removable when the people are so beaten up that they do not care to loose their lives to gain freedom it is demonstrated time and time again.
1. When Boris Yalsin stood on a tank to prevent a coup by the communists with hundreds of thousands of protesters backing him.
2. Serbia when they trew out milosovich
3. Georgia
4. Napal
5. Ukrain
6. Mali
In all these cases, they had a strong leader who when he was convinced that majority of the country voted for him and the votes are rigged, they came out in the streets in full force and trow out the rascals. It is also cleare that they were prepared for one thing and that is that they might loose their lives in the process but they stood farm. In the case of mali, when the president ordered the shooting oof innocent protesters, the military intervened to stop it and they succeeded not only in driving out the president and his goon, they also brought him to justice.
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kondorong
Gambia
4380 Posts |
Posted - 19 Jul 2006 : 01:57:33
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| THAT LEADER IS NOT YET BORN OR ON THE GAMBIAN POLITICAL SCENE. I WOULD SUGGEST WE GO PACKING AND DONT VOTE. THAT GALVANISHING FORCE IS YET TO BE SEEN BECASUE I CANNOT FIND A TRUE UNITER OF THE POEPLE. WE ARE ALL FRAGMENETED HERE AND THERE. |
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