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Momodou
Denmark
11772 Posts |
 Posted - 30 Jan 2007 : 14:17:41
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POLLING DAY IN SERREKUNDA CENTRAL
By Baboucarr Ceesay
As the Gambian electorate on Thursday 25th January, 2007 went to the polls to determine who should represent them in the National Assembly, people of Serrekunda Central caste their votes to manifest their verdict. Polling started at 7.00am as scheduled by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).
This reporter went round all the polling stations in Serrekunda Central Constituency. Voters were very few in many polling stations, while others experienced a good turnout in the early hours only.
At B89B, Marche Ngelew, an APRC Polling Agent was found sitting at the main entrance of Marche Ngelew in possession of a voters’ list directing voters to various polling stations as if carrying out an IEC polling staff’s functions. When the presiding officer of the polling station was contacted, he said he was not aware of the man’s presence there and therefore ordered him to surrender the list and wait until his turn came to replace his colleague.
The Presiding Officer of B90 in London Corner said he had been facing problems with transfers and replacements, because names of many voters with the correct station number could neither be found on the voters’ lists nor the counterfoils. He said that he had to inform the IEC who promised to double check and see whether they can be provided with more lists and counterfoils.
At this station, this reporter met Modou Lamin Jobe an APRC militant who was arranging to facilitate the voting of two APRC supporters whose names were neither in the list nor in the counterfoils. Mr. Jobe was driving in a black Range Rover numbered BJL 6181 D traversing between different polling stations.
In another development, Alhagie Fatty, UDP candidate for Serrekunda Central, had confrontation with Mr. Bubacarr Jabbie, the Presiding Officer for B33A, Bundung Borehole for interrupting the voting process. According to the Presiding Officer, the UDP candidate came to the station and told him to stop the conduct of the voting exercise. He said that Fatty said he had the right to stop the election process because his ballot drum was not sealed in the presence of his agents. The Presiding Officer pointed out that the UDP candidate had no right to stop voting when his polling agent did not even arrive at the polling station on time. He said Alhagie Fatty also insisted that he (the Presiding Officer) should not be supplied with desks by any one but the IEC.
As the tension mounted, the Presiding Officer said he had to use his authority that the Elections Degree empowers him to order the police to intervene and Mr. Fatty and one of his supporters, Mr. Lamin Cham, were arrested. Fatty’s statement was taken and released and Mr. Cham was detained at the Bundung Police Station.
Mr. Sainey Jaiteh, candidate for APRC, also arrived at B33A with the complaint that someone was in possession of voters’ cards and tried to order a security officer to search the man. The security officer said that he is trained to do things according to law not for the sake of doing them. At this juncture, Mr. Jabbie, the Presiding Officer for B33A ordered the APRC candidate and his people to disperse and stay at least 500 metres away from the ground, otherwise they would be violating the rules of the election.
Voting stopped at 4.00pm and ballot drums were finally transport to the Counting Centre at the B.O. Semega Janneh Hall for counting. Counting started around after 8pm and ended at around 3pm.
Party counting agents, the media, domestic and international observers witnessed the counting process.
At the end of the counting process Sainey Jaiteh of APRC emerged as the winner with 6328 votes, Halifa Sallah of NADD polled 4, 296 votes and UDP’s Alhagie fatty got 1,545 votes.
Source: Foroyaa Newspaper Burning Issue
Issue No. 011/2007, 29-30 January, 2006
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