By: NyimaSillah
One of the top human rights lawyer, Assan Martin, has dismissed ‘interference’ of monitoring agents of political parties at voter registration centres across the country.
The lawyer, meanwhile, urged the agents to work professionally, saying they have no legal right to force voters to present their registered cards to them for inspection.
“Political parties can send a representative to the registration centers but the representative must know that he/she is there to observe. Where they are ready or want to raise concerns, they should wait for the IEC to do their compilations and register people then they can come and challenge.
“No political party should take part in the voter’s registration because they don’t own the voter’s card of the voters. If the vote is registered and the voter doesn’t want to give out the card, no political party should interfere,” he said.
He also frowned at what he called “some people are putting flags around which is also a concern” the police and the authorities should take action to make sure those flags are down because it is not a campaign period.”
“When it is one month before campaign, yes, anybody can put a sticker but since we are not in a campaign period let them bring it down. We are looking at certain political parties, and we have seen it around Sukuta,” he added.
Meanwhile, most of the youth, he disclosed, are not taking voter registration seriously. “I believe that any Gambian that is qualified should come out and register and take part in the process seriously because we want a good and enfranchise public come December.”
According to him, if the interparty sees any element of unfairness within the registration process, they should come out with a heavy statement against the IEC.
