The Independent Electoral Commission, a body responsible for conducting elections in The Gambia, whose mission is to provide the Gambian people with an independent and efficient electoral process that is based on fairness, transparency and trust, yesterday, held a press briefing at its head office on Kairaba Avenue.

The briefing among others aims at creating awareness among the stakeholders in the electoral process, promotion of mass participation and high voter turn out, eradication or reduction of invalid votes, conveying of knowledge on how to participate in the electoral process and also promoting attitudes and behaviours that will make elections peaceful and free from cheating.

Delivering his statement at the briefing, Alhagie Mustapha Carayol, Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission defined elections as the process of actualizing representative democracy.
“It is a method of selecting representatives of the people to manage the affairs of the state,” he said. These elected representatives reflect their individual or group (political party) intentions, in terms of political programmes and philosophies.

According to the IEC Chairman, there are different types of elections, depending on the public office to be filled or the policy issue to be decided. He however, informed the gathering that the IEC is on the ground to conduct Local Government elections (LGE), adding that Local Government elections are held in The Gambia to choose Mayors and Councils  which are confined to Local Authorities.

He added that the forthcoming local government elections that they are about to venture in will be conducted in councils, Brikama Area Council (BAC), Kerewan Area Council, Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC), Mansakonko Area Council (MAC), Kuntaur Area Council, Janjangbureh Area Council and Basse Area Council (BAC) respectively.
The IEC, in exercise of its mandate under Section 40 of the 1996 Election Degree, also informed journalists that the election of Mayors for Banjul City Council and Kanifing Municipal Council and councillors for the 114 wards in eight local government councils of the Republic of The Gambia shall take place on Thursday January 24th, 2008.

Giving the highlight of the qualifications of the offices of Councillor and Mayor, Chairman Carrol said, according to Section 17, of the Local Government Act, “A person qualifies to be elected or nominated as a member of the council, if he or she is a citizen of The Gambia and is not less than 21 years of age, and a registered voter; is ordinarily resident in the local government area in which he or she seeks election; the candidate must be able to speak the English language with a degree of proficiency sufficient to enable him/her to take part in the proceedings of the council; the candidate must also make declaration of his or her assets as required by Section 42(7) of the Elections Degree, 1996, as amended and has paid all his or her taxes and rates or made arrangements satisfactory to the appropriate authority for the payment of his or her taxes and rates and has been issued with a certificate to take effect by the Commissioner of Income Tax or the appropriate rating authority as required by Section 42(7) of the Election Degree, 1996 as amended.”

The IEC Chairman also used the occasion to inform the general public that there will be an exercise to replace lost, destroyed or mutilated voters’ cards and the transfer of voters’ cards will be held from Thursday 1st November to 30th November 2007, noting that the exercise will take place in all the IEC regional offices in the various regions at a fee of D50 on any transferred or replaced card.

Meanwhile, the activities marking the events are as follows: voter education, Monday 15th October to Wednesday 23rd January 2008; issuing of nomination forms will commence from Thursday, the 13th of December to Wednesday, January 2nd 2008; Nomination period starts from January 3rd-5th, public scrutiny will be on 6th January, followed by the reconciliation of campaign itineries from January 7th-8th and the campaign will start from the January 9th-22nd 2008, followed by a cooling-off day on Wednesday, 23rd January and finally the election date January 24th, 2008.

Meanwhile the IEC is organizing three workshops throughout the country, the first one will be held at Kairaba Hotel from October 22nd - 23rd for Banjul, Kanifing Municipality and the Western Region and then similar ones will be held in Tendaba LRR and Bao Bolong in CRR.  All the stakeholders and partners in elections will attend these workshops to deliberate on the theme, “Strengthening the electoral process in The Gambia”.

In attendance at the conference were the members of the commission, representatives of the diplomatic missions, representatives of the political parties, representative of the municipal councils, donors of the Basket Fund, representatives of youth groups including the IEC staff and members of the representatives various media fraternity.