By: Omar Faye
Mai Ahmad Fatty, leader of Gambia Moral Congress has call for a shift of marble to biometric finger print system of voting.
He made the call during a political dialogue of the Constitutional Review Commission on Saturday at Ocean Bay Hotel.
He said: “election is about fairness and that there are many complications with the marble system of voting.”
He cited countries like Nigeria and Ghana and other countries to have been using biometric voters system, adding “so that the biometric DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid) would be installed in a technology that cannot be replicated elsewhere.”
“Finger printing is unique to you and no one else can copy your finger printing and no one can go and vote for you using your finger print except, if they cut your finger print and go along with it, which is an impossibility” he said.
However, he objected to various remarks made by other party leaders for use the paper system of voting, saying it is a bulk to work to be transporting papers from one point to another adding that, the biometric system is a more certain way to ascertaining a voter’s intent.
On his part, Fabakary Tombong Jatta, the leader of the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction APRC, states that the token system of voting is one of the most transparent ways of voting adding that, it is acknowledge across Africa.
“I remember there were countries in Africa who came to The Gambia here just to see how we do this token system of voting and they acclaimed it”. According to him, the paper voting has lot of irregularities and there are a lot of viol votes.
Samba Baldeh, administrative secretary of the Gambia Democratic Congress (GDC) opined for the continuation of the ballot system of voting adding that the paper system of voting would bring too many complications and needs enough time to educate electorates about that system of voting.
Filly Suso and Pateh Baldeh of the National Reconciliation Party (NRP) and Edrissa Jallow of the People’s Democratic Organisation of Independent and Socialism (PDOIS) all recommended for the inclusion of ballot paper system of voting in our electoral voting system.
