The national youth parliament has announced that they are poised  to embark on a sensitization campaign for youths and students on the upcoming local government elections.

The purpose of the campaign is to prepare and sensitise young people on voter responsibility and the significance of young people in the democratic dispensation of the country.

Mr Fabakary Kebbeh, secretary general of the NYP said: “We want to let young people know that a democratic process cannot be possible without our participation”.

Mr Lamin Bojang, speaker of the NYP, who delivered the keynote speech, said that the National Youth Parliament, based on its vision of a better Gambia for all, has diversified its areas of intervention to include democracy, human rights and good governance.

He noted that the NYP, with the intention of ensuring effective and efficient youth participation in the political dispensation of the country, decided to be involved in the sensitisation of young people to realize their rights and responsibilities.

Mr Bojang expressed the desire of the NYP to observe and ensure that Gambians are certain of the credibility of the elections.

He added that history has recorded that young parliamentarians have over the period added more value and credibility to the Gambian electoral process.

“The NYP started election observation in 2006 with the Kombo East bye-election with only 5 observers,” he said.

He stated that during the 2006 presidential election, the NYP boosted its observation team to fifteen young men and women and the coverage strategically targeted a wider area of the country.

“We continue to gather more experience and knowledge, being young people on a process of learning. We increased our strength, observing the 2007 National Assembly elections with 25 members. We can also at the same time boast of supplementing the CS0 coalition with more personnel,” he added.

He promised that this year, they would bring forward an observation mission that would consist of about fifty youth observers who will be taken from the seven regional youth parliaments of The Gambia and will observe the process in all the administrative areas of the country.

He further added that for the local government elections, the NYP would embark on two key programmes, namely, the voter education and the observation of the electoral process.

Mr Bojang explained that on the voter education program, the NYP would target 20,000 eligible youth voters in 23 senior secondary schools, around the Banjul, Kanifing, Brikama and Kerewan administrative areas.

He noted that the voter education activity will be facilitated by about 30 youth parliamentarians from the four regional youth parliaments of Banjul, Kanifing, Western and the North Bank regions.

He lamented that this program is being limited in terms of scope and target due to limited finance.

“Despite these constraints, the national youth parliament is very much committed to its mission, vision and purpose of establishment,” he concluded.