IEC accused again Minority leader revisits voters’ card controversy Kemeseng Jammeh the minority leader in the National Assembly has accused the chairman of the IEC, Gabriel Roberts of controversially issuing voters cards to aliens during the registration of voters for the October 18 presidential poll. Speaking to The Independent at his Tallinding residence recently, Kemeseng Jammeh made particularly reference to Jarra where he said the massive increase in the number of voters in Jarra led to electoral fraud, which relates to the registration of voters. Giving account for this dramatic change of the total number of votes cast in Karantaba and Soma, Jammeh revealed that in the 1996 presidential election 459 people cast their votes in comparison to 1331 in the October presidential poll, creating a difference of 872. In Soma he said there were two polling stations in the 1996 election with a total of 1408 votes. He observed that in the year 2001, it was divided into four polling centers while total number of voters rose to 3,254. As to what led to the allegedly massive electoral fraud, the minority leader disclosed that Soma is growing into a developing town and most of the registered voters there were from sub-regional countries like Senegal, Republic of Guinea, Mali and heavy concentration of refugees who were fleeing crisis in Guinea Bissau. He confirmed that in the past they had never participated in the electoral process, but this time, he said, the process was facilitated for aliens in Soma and surrounding areas to process valid Gambian IDs and voters cards. “Who will pay residential permits now if all the aliens were given Gambian documents,” he inquired. Hon. Jammeh revealed that the aliens were excited by the prospect of benefiting from the inducement offered by the coordinator of the APRC Youth Wing, Baba Jobe a native of Karantaba. He also revealed that during the registration period their party agent at Soma, Fabakary Kolior Camara was harassed and threatened, causing him to flee for his life. Another agent, Rohey Sabally who was sent to Karantaba was assaulted and had her finger fractured by one Buramanding Fofana in the presence of the police, but no action was taken Hon Jammeh claimed. According to him the matter was reported to the office of the IGP but no action was taken. He noted that the absence of their agents from the center created the chance for a massive electoral fraud to take place by registering all those aliens who were rejected at Jenoi, Pakalinding and Toniataba at Karantaba. At the revising court, he said they challenged the legality of about 400 people issued with voters cards. However, he said to their utter disappointment, the judiciary performed very badly. He blamed Magistrate Jawo who presided over the revising court in Mansakonko and described him as inefficient and inexperienced and claimed that the magistrate “mishandled everything and demonstrated his bias to such an extent that the (UDP) petitioned the Supreme Court and the Chief Justice, but without success”. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>> To view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>