GP Boss urges IEC to reduce the electoral cycle

0
100

Marr Nyang, the Executive Director of Gambia Participates, has urged the Independent Electoral Commission IEC to reduce the country’s electoral cycle by combining presidential and parliamentary elections, counsellorship, and mayoral elections.

“We are making recommendations to improve our election process,” The GP. Boss revealed.

Mr. Nyang says the electorates have faced continuous elections since the December 2021 presidential polls.

He said Fours, after the presidential polls, followed the local government elections. ‘There was a minimal gap between the local government elections, the councillorship, and the mayoral election.’

Mr. Nyang believes that IEC could devise mechanisms to combine these elections to be one.

“Even they cannot combine everything, but they can combine the presidential election with the parliamentary election, Plus the counsellorship and the mayoral election as one,” he recommended.

Marr Nyang says this will help the country to have two electoral cycles instead of four to avoid voter fatigue.

Per Section 44 of the 1997 constitution of the Gambia, the IEC’s activities are primarily funded by the Government of the Republic of the Gambia.

However, the IEC has successfully sought and acquired funding for its activities.

The Gambia participates boss describes the country’s current electoral cycles as costly.

According to Nyang, the money used to conduct these elections is usually generated from the electorates’ taxis.

“So when we put all those resources, it could be invested in other areas to foster development in the country, like road construction, health facilities, and energy,” he advised.

The IEC was established by Section 42 of the 1997 Constitution of the Republic of The Gambia. Accordingly, it operates within the confines of the Electoral Laws in the Constitution (as amended), Elections Act (as amended), and the Local Government Act 2002 (as amended).

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here