QUESTION OF THE DAY
What has happened to the staff of the IEC since 2 December 2016? Have they received their salaries?
Information reaching Foroyaa is that the IEC office is under the control of the security apparatus. The staff are said to be completely uprooted. Their salaries and allowances are said to be withheld.
It is important for the government to know that the IEC office should be completely independent of the executive. It is an irony for a contestant to the presidential election, who happens to wield executive power, to order the security forces to take over an institution which is supposed to exercise direction and control over electoral matters.
It is a legal dictum that those who come to justice must come with clean hands. Hence, the contender is best advised to know that taking over the IEC is to abrogate its independence and puts into question the security of the ballot tokens that are material in any litigation. The wise thing to do now is to accept to hand over the presidency to the victor in the 1 December 2016 presidential election.
