The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Thursday donated $500,000 to Gambia for its 4 December presidential election.
This was announced by Dr. Sidie Mohamed Tunis, Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, at the end of his week-long pre-election fact-finding mission in Gambia.
During the mission, he had engagements with key stakeholders involved in the elections including the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), political parties and civil society organisations.
He said it was their responsibility to look at processes that would lead to peaceful elections, clear any impediments that would hamper the processes for the people of Gambia to exercise their franchise.
Dr. Tunis said they are impressed with the support IEC is getting from the government for the vote.
The political parties have also made a commitment to ensure peaceful, effective and transparent elections, he said, adding that “Gambians need to note that all they have is the Gambia and therefore they need to ensure peace always”.
Dr. Tunis said one of the issues brought to his notice was access to the media, with political parties complaining that the media, especially the public broadcaster, was not covering their activities.
“These are some of the issues that I have discussed with the ECOWAS Ambassador to the Gambia to start working on as our representative.”
He said security issues were also brought to his attention adding, “I am pleased to announce that in my meeting with civil society organisations I was informed that commitment is made by the Gambia Police Force to provide full security to the political party leaders.”