PUBLIC STATEMENT ON ELECTION ISSUED BY GMC LEADER, MAI AHMAD FATTY 1. Consistent with the strong position of the Group of Six, GMC will not participate at the by-election to be conducted by the IEC with Mustapha Carayol as its Chairman, on Nov. 1st 2013. Even if Carayol departs, the circumstances of our inability to contest the last parliamentary elections in which the IEC forced us out, have not changed. Instead, we continue to experience more escalation in the constriction of the democratic space, and in particular access to the media and other information infrastaructure remain a formidable challenge. The electioneering and electoral processes remain hugely skewed in favour of the APRC, leaving little or no room for unfettered exercise of the plebescite. Our documented proposals for comprehensive reforms in the electoral process have all been denied by the IEC, and there are all indications that it has no intentions to change the electoral status quo. None of our conditions were remotely considered, while the position of the APRC continues to be tenable. Biased public comments by the IEC Chairman against opposition leaders disclosed the totality of his mind about how negatively he perceived the opposition. It is therefore impossible to conduct free and fair elections under his auspicies. 2. Participating in any elections under the IEC would be legitimising an illegality. The tenure of the IEC Chairman Mustapha Carayol had long elapsed, and cannot be renewed under law. He is therefore not qualified to organise an election or supervise one in The Gambia. That is why we engaged and and also wrote to Mustapha Carayol himself, Parliament, the Minister of Justice and the Presidency to remind them of this anomaly for action. For over a year, we are yet to receive an acknowledgement from either Carayol or any of these institutions, although they are all fully aware of the legal provision qualifying him to serve in every respect. The National Assembly which passed the very law disqualifying Mustapha Carayol, will abdicate its constitutional mandate if it fails to stop this illegality or validate the results of an unlawful election. Any reputed winner of this election will be a usurper, pirating and exercising a false mandate contrary to law. 3. GMC calls for: (a) Immediate comprehensive electoral reforms so as to create reasonable level playing field. GMC has been consistently denied access to the tax payer State media, while the private media has been pushed into self-censorship. Others such as Teranga FM, Daily News and Standard, etc remained shut down without lawful justication. Freedom of assembly and speech remain heavily circumscribed. (b) Respect for the rule of law. Pernicious governance propensities have the negative impact of withering away our support base over a period, and those negative conditions continue to thrive against our Party and supporters. These have also negatively impacted our ability to publicly raise funds for political programs such as voter education or decentralising retail politics by establishing branch offices in the country. Most Gambians, while they would like to support our programs financially are generally scared of retribution, consequently depriving us of needed resources to effectively implement our reform Agenda. Therefore our ability to launch nation wide political activities, including institutional presence in most places remain weak, irregular and inconsistent. This situation also unfortunately restricts GMCs conduct of diplomacy, which is very essential for our Platform. (c) End the gross abuse of the incumbency, which continues unabated. Every day is a day of national campaign for the APRC and its members on State media, and the widespread use of public resources creates a grossly unfair contest and access to the voters. This offends the Elections Act which is weakly enforced by the IEC. (d) Total revision of the electoral registrar, with full biometric registrations. The electoral registrar or master list is heavily flawed and full of irregularities. This situation denies the list all credibility. We cannot be sure and we have very limited means and avenues of identifying who should not be on the list at any given time. Many such names found their way through suspicious attestions that would never pass the legal test, and have now become part of the legitimate list. Attestations should end because the safeguards against its abuse are not enforced. (e) An end to simultanoeus multiple counting at counting stations, ending transporation of ballot boxes to central counting stations, while counting all ballots at the each voting centers where the actual voting took place under clear lights. Only God knows what could transpire during transit. (f) Amendments to the NIA Decree, the Police Act, Public Order Act and the Armed Forces Act with regards to the electoral process, freedom of assembly and speech and the rule of law. These are pre-eminent conditions for the conduct of free and fair elections.These and other formidable barriers have inevitably created conditions that render any elections mere formal exercises. Participating at such elections would be a great disservice to the electorates. (h) Launching diaspora voter registration to enable overseas Gambians to vote. Poor countries such as Benin, Guinea Conakry, etc have done it. The Gambia can do it too if the political will exists. We believe that the citizenship rights of a Gambian should not be suspended or denied on the grounds of living outside the Gambia. The right to vote and to be voted for is a fundamental constitutional provision. Our Constitution places no discrimination on the right to vote on the basis of residence. Rather, the Directive Principles of State Policy enshrined in our Constitution imposes a duty on the government to ensure that Gambians are able to choose their leaders through free and fair elections regadless of where they live. Denying diaspora Gambians this inalienable right is unconstitutional and contrary to The Gambias obligations under relevant international protocols. GMC believes that election is a process, and it ends in voting. That process does not start and end on polling day. If the processes leading to a vote are heavily flawed, the results cannot be free or fair. Therefore, pursuant to the general consensus of our membership and supporters both at home and in the diaspora, we refuse to validate an illegality by endorsing the conduct of this by-election. Our position is that the results of the by-election will be both illegitimate and unlawful because of these and other reasons. Let me state categorically that this is not an election boycott. Rather, we are “forced out“ by the IEC because it is impossible for GMC to fight while lying on the floor, with our hands and feet tied behind our back. There is the urgent need for structured national dialogue. GMC therefore calls for a genuine National Conference of Political Parties within a reasonable time, including the civil society and the diaspora, with the support of regional political organisations and other observers. The Conference will discuss wholesale reforms in the political process, and submit time bound actionable principles, to be fully implemented by all stakeholders without delay, prior to any elections. We propose an open amnesty be granted to diaspora Gambians and their civil society organisations willing to participate at this Conference.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Nov 2013 05:45:06 +0000
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