By Tabora Bojang
The minister of justice, Dawda Jallow, has faulted the Inter-Party Committee which comprises of all political parties in the country as being responsible for the delay of the Elections Amendment Bill 2020, which seeks to repeal the current elections act.
The Justice Minister made the remarks during an interface with the National Assembly Committee on Regional Government, Ombudsman and IEC, where he was asked to explain reasons for the delay in the promulgation of the new Elections Amendment Bill.
He disclosed that the initial draft which contained the position of the cabinet and other stakeholders, has been delayed because the committee felt the bill did not reflect their desires.
The IPC is a common forum for political parties aimed at fostering peace, tolerance and political civility in the country.
“The Ministry of Justice organised a meeting with the IEC chairman and discussed some of cabinet’s concerns and we took them on board for final approval. But what actually caused the delay is that while I was on the revision of the initial bill, the Inter-Party Committee went public to indicate that the bill does not reflect their aspirations and as such they want to hold meetings and do their own validation even after we have already carried out a validation where all political parties were represented,” Jallow told the lawmakers.
As a result, he said out of caution he held up the process with a view to take stock of their new concerns “but all efforts to lay hand on the outcome of their validations were difficult”.
“In light of these delays I believe it is better to table it [Elections Bill] before the National Assembly because the Inter-Party Committee members are also in the parliament and if they want to do any changes they can do so at the level of the house,” he suggested.
Asked about the implications of the delay in the run-up to the voter registration, the attorney general responded: “There is no proposal in the draft that will affect qualification for registration. The qualifications have not changed and the registration can go ahead under the current laws,” he explained.
