Council elections should take place on 12th of April 2018. This will mark the end of the electoral cycle. Presidential election took place under the Jammeh regime. The opposition won and maintained that it was a free and fair election. The National Assembly elections took place on the 6th of April 2017. There was confusion within the ranks of the coalition stakeholders. Some preferred the candidates of parties within the Coalition to hold a primary and select independent Coalition National Assembly members whilst others preferred party candidates. Eventually party candidates stood. The National Assembly is now in full swing.
The country needs to put the electoral system on a sound footing as parties begin to consolidate their political activities. Civic education is necessary to discourage inducement or intimidation of the electorate. The political parties have signed up to a code of conduct so that they could carry out their political activities on a level playing field. We therefore hope that the IEC, the National Council for Civic Education and the Interparty committee, would make the nation proud of intimidation and inducement free council elections so that the Gambian people will make informed choices in selecting their municipal and regional representatives.
