By Omar Bah
The Independent Electoral Commission has confirmed to The Standard yesterday that the electoral body has seen reports on social media of purported new blank voter cards allegedly found in Kanifing but said he could not officially comment on the matter immediately.
About 50 blank cards strikingly similar to Gambian voter cards were found by one Molamin Gikineh at his Kanifing Estate compound gate on Saturday. The cards bear the name and logo of the Independent Electoral Commission as the issuing authority though they don’t have any pictures, names, addresses, dates or any other details of a voter. The blank cards though have what looks like the signature of the IEC chairman.
Molamin Gikineh, speaking in a video doing the rounds on social media, said he doesn’t know the person (s) who dumped the voter cards at his home.
“I found the cards at my house gate just after 8:00 in the evening. I will report the matter to the Kanifing police and as well hand the cards over to the police,” he told Freedom Newspaper oline.
The Standard contacted Samboujang Njie, the chief electoral officer at the IEC about Gikineh’s startling discovery.
He said: “We will look into these things tomorrow (Monday) and I will get back to you. For now, I cannot comment on it because I have not spoken to the chairman or anyone but we will give you some information about anything we know. But as far as I am concerned, all the cards I saw are blank and when that’s the case, we don’t have any issue,” he said.
When contacted for comments, the police spokesperson Superintendent Lamin Njie said he was busy at the time and promised to call back. But until the time of going to press he had not called back.
Meanwhile, The Standard understands that several other people made similar discoveries.
