By Lamin Cham
The Independent Electoral Commission has made clarifications as to when it was contacted by both Musa Batchilly, with his resignation letter from the Gambia Democratic Congress GDC and the party’s official letter informing the IEC of the expulsion of Mr Batchilly.
The GDC announced late June that it has expelled Mr Batchilly but the former senior official fired back to say he had indeed resigned and that he was never expelled, leading to widespread speculation as to which one came first.
A letter from the IEC dated July 3 acknowledging Mr Batchilly’s letter of May 13 informing the commission of his resignation from the GDC was circulated online all these days supposedly supporting Mr Batchilly’s claim that he had resigned well before GDC announced his expulsion.
However the IEC chairman Alieu Momarr Njai yesterday told The Standard that the first letter that arrived at the IEC about this matter was from the GDC dated June 24, informing him of the expulsion of Mr Batchilly from the party. “That letter was received on June 27, and we acknowledged receipt of it on the same day,” the IEC chairman said.
He further disclosed that on July 3, his office received a letter dated May 13 from Mr Batchilly informing them that he had resigned from the GDC. “That letter was received on July 3 and was acknowledged on the same day. That is where matters stand with us in this,” Mr Njai concluded.
