The Independent Electoral Commission, yesterday, accredited 266 international and domestic election observers for the long awaited Local Government Elections slated for January 24th this year.

Speaking at a briefing session, on Tuesday, at the Paradise Suites Hotel in Kololi, Alhagie Mustapha Carayol, chairman of the IEC, briefed the observers about the election procedures, noting that Local Government elections are conducted every four years to choose mayors and councilors. This, he added, are confined to areas of Local Authorities.

He said the electorate in Kanifing Municipal Council and Banjul City Council will vote twice for the councilor of their ward and then the mayoral aspirant.

“Those voting in areas where there is no contest for councilorship will vote only once,” the IEC chairman explained.

He revealed that elections will be held in 59 wards for the position of councilor and all the wards within BCC and KMC. He told the observers that the country is divided into 7 Administrative Areas with an IEC Regional Office in each Administrative Headquarters namely: Banjul, Kanifing, Brikama, Kerewan, Mansakonko, Janjangbureh, and Basse.

The IEC chairman revealed that there are 989 polling station in the country, but out of that, only 556 will be used.

In the Banjul Administrative Area, 30 polling stations have been set up for the mayoral election and only 17 out of the 30 will be used for the councilorship election. In the Kanifing Administrative Area, 182 polling stations have been set up for the mayoral  election whilst 157 out of that will be used for councilorship elections. 64 polling stations are set for Brikama Administrative Area, 97 for Kerewan Administrative Area, 27 for Mansakonko Administrative Area, 105 for Janjangbureh and 51 for Basse Administrative Area.

Out of the 670,336 total number of registered voters, he said, 377,857 will go to the polls to tally their votes.

Speaking on security during the process, Inspector Yahya Fadera, commissioner of police and IEC police liason officer said plans were in place for constant patrols and to make sure theatpeace and tranquility prevail throughout the period.