By Tabora Bojang
The Head of Police Prosecutions and Legal Affairs, Commissioner Abdoulie Sanneh has stated that police can only act on election related offences if the cases are reported by the Independent Electoral Commission IEC who are the custodians of the Elections Act.
Sanneh added that recently, police have been dragged into situations arising from the ongoing voter registration exercise, some of which are not part of its functions.
Speaking to the police media unit, Commissioner Sanneh explained that only the IEC has the primary responsibility to administer the Elections Act and if something happens that has to do with the Act, it is the IEC that has the primary mandate to report the matter to the police.
“It is not for individuals to walk to a police station to complain that a particular person was found registering a document that is not valid. As long as it concerns the electoral law, that responsibility lies on the IEC. The police will then look into it and if necessary, open a file and send it to the Ministry of Justice,” Sanneh added.
He said it is important that people know about this because very often these days, people will walk to the police and complain and if their complaint is not treated, they will feel that the police are not doing their job.
According to Commissioner Sanneh, the police have “no authority” to declare a document forged, whether a birth certificate or not, without the IEC’s involvement.
“Every political party has a representative at polling or regsitration stations to observe and report any irregularity or malpractice. So if there is a party representative, there is no need to cause any chaos. It is the election officer who has authority to decide what happens at a polling station or registration centre. If you believe that somebody presented a document that is invalid, you don’t go to the police station to report the matter because it is not the responsibility of the police. What you should do is to take note of that person’s details and submit it to your party to challenge it at the revising court provided it appears on the final list of voters,” he said.
He said the police fully understands its role and everything it does “has to be within the confines” of the law. “So we will only do what the law says,” Commissioner Sanneh insisted.
