By Amadou Jadama
Politician and legal practitioner, Assan Martin has warned the Independent Electoral Commission to be extra vigilant and avoid mistakes made in 2016 election result declaration.
Speaking to The Standard yesterday, Martin said this election has become very crucial with very high stakes.
In 2016, the IEC made an error in the announcement of the results. Even though everyone, including former president Jammeh, agreed with the results which saw him trail by some 18,000 votes, he later disputed the outcome after IEC mistakenly announced a wrong total figure.
Jammeh declared he would not go, insisting to go to court, an act many believed was a lame excuse to cling to power.
“What happened in 2016 was a serious issue and a learning curve for the IEC. Let the IEC be thorough in the counting and verify the figures correctly before announcing any result. No one must have any doubt or reason to dispute anything coming from the IEC,“ he said.
Mr Martin further implored Gambians to come out on 4 December and vote for the best programme and not on sentiments.
He further warned non- Gambians to stay away from our electoral process.
