The Local Government Act (Amendment) Bill 2007 was passed yesterday by the National Assembly. The bill seeks to put President Jammeh, with effect from today, in charge of the affairs of all area councils and municipalities in the country, such that he could remove mayors, deputy mayors, chairmen and other members of the local councils as he may see fit.

This state of affairs emanates from a parliamentary amendment of the bill entitled Local Government Amendment Bill 2007 by members of the National Assembly as part of their 2nd extraordinary meeting in the 2007 legislative year.

According to the Secretary of State for Local Government and Lands, the act is in line with the needs for faster decision-making in councils and for a more rapid and responsive implementation of the decentralization process.

Hon. Ismaila Sambou, who tabled the motion before deputies at the National Assembly yesterday, said it was in cognisance of the constraints that his department has been facing with regard to the exchange and management of information and decisions of the councils that it was considered necessary to introduce the concept of indirect executive chairpersons, excluding mayors and mayoresses, whereby the chairpersons of councils will be elected not by universal adult suffrage but by councilors.  This, he said, could not however be done without the Constitution being amended. The Constitution, he went on, having been amended, prepared the ground for this bill to amend the relevant sections of the Local Government Act to give effect to the constitutional amendment.

Hon. Sambou pointed out that the amendment further seeks to provide for the dissolution of the 90 days requirement for councils before local government elections and the setting of an interim management team by the president to oversee the affairs of councils until scheduled elections.

It would be recalled that in 2006, the Local Government Act was amended to, among other things, change the title of commissioners to governors.

For more details on the debate that ensued immediately after the bill was moved, see our next issue.