By Alhagie Jobe
The Gambia’s Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) Tuesday announced that the campaign period for the Presidential election will be held from Wednesday, November 16 2016 to Tuesday 29 November 2016.
The IEC Chairman made the announcement Tuesday during an interactive session with political party leaders, representatives and members of the press to give statistics on the voter registration, number of constituencies, and dates for nominations and campaigning periods ahead of the December 2016 Presidential elections.
“In exercise of the powers given in Section 85 of the Elections Act, the IEC wishes to announce that the campaign period for the said election will be held from Wednesday, 16 November 2016 to Tuesday, 29 November 2016” IEC Chairman Alieu Momarr Njie announced.
The Gambia goes to the polls in December for a presidential election in which incumbent Yahya Jammeh is seeking for a fifth mandate.
According to him, an election is the outcome of a complex process requiring the participation of a multitude of players such as election officials, government officials, political parties and politicians, security agents, Civil Society Organisations, donor agencies, the media, diplomatic missions, the judiciary and above all, the electorate.
He therefore publicly gave out official statistics and activities of the commission in the electioneering year saying the year 2016 is a very busy year for the Commission.
“First among its activities was the Supplementary registration of electors (voters) which started on Thursday 14th January and ended on 12th March 2016. The total number of registrants during the supplementary registration is 89, 649” he announced.
IEC Chairman Njie further announced that as at now, the number of voters stands at 886,578 as opposed to 796,929 in 2011.
He also announced the number of polling stations that will be installed country wide saying “the number of polling stations will be 1422 as opposed to 1300 in 2011. A re-demarcation of some constituencies was carried out and the number of constituencies is now 53. A fresh registration was not conducted in the affected areas but the Commission will resort to putting constituency stickers on the voting cards of the affected voters to bring that situation in consonance with the law on Election Day” he said.
According to him, elections are universally recognized to form a very important role in safeguarding the desired peaceful environment of any nation. He said the concept of integrity is innate to the principles of democracy and therefore described the concept of this interactive session as one that will contribute immensely to the administration of free and fair elections, without which democracy would be compromised.
