Minister of Finance Mambury Njie said it’s unfortunate that he has been accused of misleading parliament over diaspora voting.
Mr Njie had in April told lawmakers the participation of the Gambian diaspora in the upcoming presidential election will require a supplementary appropriation as diaspora voting is not budgeted in the 2021 estimates.
Badibou MP Sulayman Saho then told The Standard said the minister’s comment that there is no money to fund diaspora voting contradicted a previous statement to lawmakers.
But the minister fired back on Wednesday, saying: “Let me make one clarification. The IEC and the judiciary, the only time we see their budget is when it is handed over to us for inputting. They don’t come from bilaterals, we have no idea of what the content is. From the executive to the National Assembly, then it will come to us.
“This is why we were surprised when we saw headline talking about the minister misleading the National Assembly. It’s unfortunate.
“I was invited to a committee meeting here just to maybe advise and I was asked… When we looked at the budget, we didn’t see any line item on diaspora voting. I said there is nothing here for diaspora voting. They said ‘what can you advise?’ I said ‘the only advice I have is SAB’.”
