By Nelson Manneh
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) on Wednesday briefed the press and civil society organizations on their state of preparedness for the forthcoming presidential election.
The IEC scheduled the Gambia’s presidential election for the 4th December 2021, under the theme “The Gambia Vote 2021.”
Sambijang Njie, the Chief Election Officer (CEO), said the nomination period for the 2021 presidential election will last for seven days.
Njie said the IEC has come up with a code of conduct for both the media and the civil society organizations who may want to observe the election process.
“We have informed the media, the civil society groups, and other stakeholders who want to participate in the observation of the upcoming presidential election to apply for accreditation,” he said.
CEO Njie said after the nomination of presidential candidates, there will be public scrutiny of the nominee’s documents at the Election House.
“This time around nominations will be done outside the IEC office. We have realized that our conference room is small and for transparency we want it to be done openly at the IEC premises,” he said.
CEO Njie assured the public that the IEC voter list has captured the names of all registered voters. He said there is no voter who was registered during the 2021 general registration of voters and his or her name is omitted from the list.
The IEC has earlier declared that they have registered nine hundred and sixty-two thousand, one hundred and fifty-seven (962,157) voters during the 2021 general registration of voters.
Alieu Momarr Njie, the chairman of IEC, said the Gambials electoral system is the most transparent and fairest all over the world.
“Our system is such that the public knows the election results ‘prior’ to the Election Commission. We are encouraging all aspiring candidates for the 2021 Presidential election to prepare their agents for each voting centre,” he said.
The IEC chairman said his office will continue to maintain the credibility and transparency of the election process.
