By Omar Bah
The opposition Gambia Action Party has urged the Independent Electoral Commission to take legal actions against the 2966 people who are found to have registered more than once in the just concluded voter registration exercise.
According to Election House, the culprits may face some disciplinary actions including prosecution.
Speaking to The Standard exclusively last Wednesday, IEC chairman Alieu Momarr Njai said: “The commission wants to sit on the issue to decide how many of them will be deleted or prosecuted”.
But the GAP presidential candidate, Alieu Sowe yesterday told The Standard that the electoral commission should go ahead and prosecute them without any delay to send a strong signal.
“We call on the commission to ensure that the perpetrators face the full force of the law regardless of party affiliations. The IEC should work towards maintaining the highest standards of electoral processes and accord the integrity it requires for a peaceful electoral cycle,” Sowe said.
He said in the interest of continuous impartiality, fair play and effective service delivery, the IEC should also publish the names of all individuals involved in the “dubious action” and should be prevented from voting.
“IEC has a mandate to hold every single person accountable trying to subjugate the efforts of the commission that might threaten our peaceful environment,” he added.
Sowe further stressed: “Our collective responsibility and conscience as political parties and citizens should be guided through realistic decisions to ensure the safety of our nation. We must discourage the politicization and or trivialization of national issues as political leaders for upholding the selfish interests of parties”. The GAP presidential aspirant criticized President Barrow’s decision to defend all supporters taken to the Revising Courts. This, Sowe added, will empower people to engage in wrongdoings.
“That said, we call on IEC to explain to the Gambian people about the authenticity of their master register and why more than three thousand signatures appeared more than once without detection. It’s our fundamental right as Gambians to demand an answer to this question that will avert a replica of 2016 presidential election impasse that caused internal displacement of more than two hundred thousand people,” Sowe added.
The impartiality of IEC, Sowe added, “cannot be questioned and we urge them to maintain that modus operandi to ensure our safety as a nation is guaranteed”.
