It is incredible that while the IEC is supposed to enjoy a new lease of life in a new Gambia its headquarters appears to be a graveyard for transports. At this moment when a constitutional review exercise is going on, one would have expected the IEC to be conducting meetings with the parties and the electorate in all the regions to find out what type of mandate the Gambian people would want for the IEC under a new constitution.
Is the institution really independent under the new dispensation or are new conditions, taking administrative forms, emerging to tie its hands. The IEC Chairman should hold a press conference to explain the position of the IEC on how it is being affected by recent executive decisions.
There can be no new IEC unless all threats to its independence and viability are exposed and addressed at this junction. There can be no free and fair election without an independent and viable electoral commission. Its staff must be properly remunerated so that they could be free from any temptation of inducement by those who preside over the affairs of the country. As soon as the Executive has the capacity through its decision to make the members of the Commission and the staff to be improperly remunerated or adversely deprived the independence of the institution would erode. Foroyaa is watching. The nation should take notice.
Foroyaa will investigate a report of an IEC personnel whose vehicle was seized when he attended a court case involving the IEC. We will investigate the authenticity of the report before the next edition.
