Home in Serrekunda Transforms to Voter Attestation Centre

The Daily News:
 
Monday, May 09, 2011
A home near a voter registration centre in Serrekunda Lower Basic School, in Serrekunda Central constituency has been transformed into what could be described as ‘an attestation centre’, The Daily News gathered. 
The country’s electoral body is embarking on a general registration of voters ahead of the upcoming presidential election slated for November 24. 
Gambian constitution allows eligible citizens without required national identification papers to obtain certification from a traditional ruler or five community elders inorder to acquire a voter card.
Yet IEC has confirmed reports of certification of ineligible applicants: underage and aliens.    
With the registration exercise kicking-off May 5 across the country, a large number of voter card applicants without the required documents crowded at Bah Kunda, a compound near the voter registration where they have their attestation forms filled by five people who call themselves elders. 
The five elders who are all said to be affiliated to the APRC party comprises three men and two women. They are Alhagie Biran Gaye, Alhagie Ousman Jallow, Alhagie Jatta Bah, Awa Sisay and Aja Rohey Sanyang. 
The latter is attached to the IEC registration team at the Serrekunda Lower Basic School. 
She is serving as an APRC agent and at the same time a member of the council of elders who certify. 
Awa Sisay, a members of the said elders’ council at Bah Kunda, told denied influencing any applicant to vote for the APRC. She said they don’t know the political affiliation of some of the applicants.
“IEC said that we should not be clustered here to fill and sign attestation forms for people,” she admitted. 
Yet they remained defiant and have been filling attestation forms for the voter card applicants up to the time of going to the press.  
When the Green Girls, a group of young girls identified with the ruling APRC party, showed up at Bah Kunda ‘attestation centre’, Awa sang a song: “Green Girls I love you.” 
 “We are just here to help young people who have lost their documents to acquire voter cards as citizens,” said a young man helping in filling the forms for the elders.
When contacted, a senior registration officer Ousman Sanneh said that IEC officials are not politicians and did not recognise any compound for the registration exercise.
 He said  all their centres should be situated in public places, but was quick to tell our reporter that he will reach out to all registration centres under his jurisdiction as assigned to him by the IEC to address such matters.
Opposition party agents have raised concern over the large amount of attestations approved within just four days of the registration exercise.
Unconfirmed sources have it that a Yai Compin has collected about 40 attestation forms from the registration officers at Serrekunda Lower Basic School to be kept for some expected Green Youths who should come from Kanilai, the president’s home village to be registered in Serrekunda Central. 
Despite intervention by agents of other parties and a senior EIC official, the elders remain defiant.

Author: Baboucarr Ceesay
====

APRC will go to any length to rig this election.  I hope the opposition parties are screamimg and kicking to make a stop to these abuses.  They need to docuemnt these incidents and vigorously pursue them with IEC and even the courts if need be.  A strong stand needs to be taken on this right now.  Nothing but a thorough and complete resolution of these issues should be accepted.

Ansu

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