By: Nyima Sillah
The Elections Watch Committee (EWC) report has revealed that during the election’s day in Banjul South, NPP Supporters were seen campaigning at the NPP Political Bureau located opposite the polling station which was upsetting voters.
The report also indicated that IEC officials ordered the closure of the bureau to restore calm.
Speaking during the media briefing, Ndegen Jobe, Deputy Speaker of the National Youth Parliament, said the Elections Watch Committee received three reports of disagreements at polling stations due to insistence of party/candidate agents demanding the ballot tokens be counted at the polling stations before voting starts.
According to the report, GDCNPP, UDP and an independent candidate demanded the count of the tokens before opening and that delayed the opening time by one hour.
The report further stated that in another polling station in the Kanifing Administrative area, a UDP party agent again demanded the count of the ballot tokens before voting began. This she said: also delayed the start of the voting process. Adding that another polling station located in Lower Nuimi, Kerrewan, Party agents demanded a count of the tokens delaying the opening for thirty minutes.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Speaker said updates are based on reports received from their 300 stationary observers deployed to polling streams proportionally nationwide as of 12:00pm on 9th April, 2022.
“This report focuses on the set-up and opening of polling stations and streams adding that the percentages reported reflect percentages of polling streams observed which provides credible data on emerging national trends. At this time, the Elections Watch Committee has received 100% of reports from its 300 stationary observers” she said.
She said “observers reported that in 23% of polling streams the Presiding Officer did not count the number of tokens at the polling stream before opening the process for voting.
“Observers also noted that in 32% of the polling streams voters had to climb stairs to reach the polling stream while noting that stairs make the polling station inaccessible to the person with disabilities and the elderly which may disenfranchise them from voting.”
