By Alagie Manneh
Presidential candidate, Dr Ismaila Ceesay of the Citizens’ Alliance has urged the IEC to be transparent and stop “undermining” The Gambia’s electoral process.
The electoral commission dispatched a correspondence Monday afternoon postponing the planned January 14 general voter registration exercise ahead of this year’s presidential polls. It cited ‘logistical challenges’ as reason for the postponement but Dr Ceesay said the IEC is attempting to undermine the process.
“The IEC should not have sent us a letter telling us that they are postponing a very important national process without giving us more information as to what the logistical challenges are and what is the next scheduled date. They cannot leave us in limbo. They need to be very careful with what they are doing because we are watching. Their actions are undermining the process and we cannot allow them to [continue] undermining the whole [electoral] process,” he said.
He continued to say the public needs to know in clear details what those challenges are as dictated by the principles of transparency in any democracy or electoral system.
“We also demand a more realistic registration schedule without delay. We cannot be in limbo. We plan our party activities on IEC’s timetable,” Dr Ceesay said.
The former university lecturer, who became Citizens’ Alliance presidential leader and flag bearer in November, said his party is investigating the true reasons behind the postponement of the voter registration exercise.
“We don’t want to speculate and say things that we are not sure about, but we are doing our own investigations to find out. That is why it is important for the IEC to prevent people from speculating and tell us what is [really] happening. That is what transparency is,” he stated.
Several parties have in the past questioned the integrity of the IEC with some even calling for its chairman to step aside, and Dr Ceesay feels the latest developments such as postponement of a voter registration without genuine motives only gives credence to the doubters.
“The IEC as an arbiter must be able to tell us exactly what is happening, without doing so, they just give credence to those who doubt their integrity. It’s a very shocking development. The letter is very disappointing. It is very vague. It did not tell us anything. It just tells us that the process has been postponed until further notice but this is something we cannot accept. We have 11 months to election, and registration is a whole process that also involves verification, appeals and counter appeals,” he stated.
Registration of non-Gambians
Dr Ceesay also addressed allegations that non-Gambians are being issued ID cards in a bid to have them registered to vote in the coming polls.
“We don’t have any evidence to prove these claims however, we urge everybody against this because this is criminal and we the political actors are observing and we are very vigilant. We will not let such things happen in this county, and anybody found to be doing such an illegal or criminal activity, we will make sure you face the full force of the law,” Dr Ceesay warned.
