This ridiculous law must be be thrown out
Dear Editor,
Laws, political processes and procedures in a democracy are aligned with the democratic principles and practices. But in The Gambia, they want to align democratic principles and practices to anti-democratic laws, processes and procedures. That’s a recipe for confusion and the eventual undermining of the political system.
I can understand the rationale behind the idea that aspiring presidential candidates should be supported by a certain number of registered voters from all the regions of the country but the law is arbitrary, anti-democratic and against the human rights of the aspiring presidential candidates. It’s a very bad anti-democratic law and should be thrown out of our law books.
Ruminated but couldn’t reconcile with the democratic principles and practices how the IEC could say that a presidential candidate is not eligible to run for president because he or she failed to have a certain number of registered voter support from certain areas of the country-. It’s a ridiculous law!
The Gambia needs to introduce a parliamentary democracy and the right to recall elected representatives in our democracy. That’s a more sensible democratic regime and dispensation than the Kanilai democratic standards the IEC is pushing onto the politicians.
How can it be right and democratic for the IEC to deny the nomination of a presidential candidate because he or she failed to have the support of a certain number of registered voters from certain regions of the country? This is madness! The law doesn’t make any democratic sense and it’s against the human rights of the presidential candidates! We need political reforms in The Gambia.
We cannot hide behind very bad anti-democratic laws when The Gambia should opt to embrace better representative democratic practices and principles.
I find it unbelievable that the IEC has the powers to say that X, Y and Z are not qualified to run for the presidency after already filing their application, and these are political parties already registered with the IEC!
Clearly, the dodgy law the IEC relied on to disqualify the presidential candidates is anti-democratic and against the human rights of the candidates.
We need political reforms in The Gambia and align the laws in our democracy with the principles and practices of democratic politics.
I can understand the rationale behind the law but it’s anti-democratic, arbitrary and very crude.
We need to bring in a more acceptable democratic law and political dispensation! One of the problems of democratic politics and economics in The Gambia is that the politicians don’t talk about political and economic reforms.
Most of the politicians don’t even understand the basics of democratic politics and standards.
They think that a democracy is governed by aligning democratic principles and practices with the laws of the land. No, a democracy is governed by aligning the laws of the land with democratic principles, practices, processes and procedures.
Dr Ceesay is said to have a PhD in politics but I wonder what he really understands about democratic politics!
We’ve got to upgrade and update democratic politics and standards in The Gambia! The IEC doesn’t have the powers to deny any candidate a chance to run for the presidency or any other elected office when they have not broken any criminal laws and met citizenship and residency requirements!
Yusupha ‘Major’ Bojang
Brikama
Re: General Bojang explains meeting President Barrow
Dear Editor,
Gambians should be very careful of these job hunters like General Lamin Bojang. Why set up your own party in the first place if you knew the president is doing well?
You could have joined him. These job hunters were the very ones telling us the president isn’t doing well for the country, yet they are now endorsing him to gain re-election! This is not serious! I believe they were deceiving their followers.
We cannot afford to have another poorly constituted coalition or alliance that would retard the country’s pace of development in next five years.
Be careful of these job hunters!
Demba Darboe
Serekunda
Re: Barrow says it is in fact Darboe who betrayed him
Dear Editor,
Is the UDP and Darboe the agenda of Adama Barrow and his NPP? Barrow should instead sell his agenda to the voters and address issues like the high cost of living, poor health situation, poor education, fuel shortage, lack of security just to name few. Barrow and his supporters spent lot of their time talking about UDP and Darboe. We Gambians are not paying our taxes to Darboe or UDP, so Barrow stop the idle talk and do what is necessary.
Mikel Obi
Sukuta
