The APRC said at a press conference on Monday that the leadership of the national election body is bias against their party and cannot therefore be credible.
Fabakary Tombong Jatta, the leader of the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction, has urged the chairman of the Independence Electoral Commission Alieu M. Njai to resign in order to protect the integrity of future polls.
The APRC leadership said Njai has openly manifested his dislike of their party and cannot thus referee fairly between them and others.
“In the interest of free, fair and credible elections and the peace and stability of The Gambia, we are asking the IEC chairman to resign,” Jatta said.
“He is bias,… he is anti-APRC and in the circumstances he is not qualified. And elections mostly around the world can create a lot of instability where there is no credibility. And in this circumstances, in the interest of The Gambia and to ensure that we have free, fair and credible elections, let him honorably resign his position.”
Jatta said the IEC chief has openly stated that he was happy that APRC was defeated during the 2016 presidential elections.
Jatta said Njai made several decisions against the party including reducing their seats from 18 councilor seats to 16.
However, the APRC leadership has not reported any major incident that could affect the integrity of the past regional government elections.
Jatta said they are currently on investigation on some of the allege irregularities that were reported to them by their party agents.
The IEC has made some wrong announcements of election results in the recent past. The first one made during the country’s past presidential elections nearly set the small country on fire.
However, Njai who was appointed by the founder of the APRC as the chairman of the electoral body did not have a decent history with the party.
Following his announcement of the 2016 presidential election results, Njai had to flee for his life to neighboring Senegal where he sought refuge until the inauguration of new president Adama Barrow.
He later claimed he was a target of lethal injection. Njai said the former dictator Yahya Jammeh did not want him to announce the results.
Jatta also condemned what he claimed was an attack on his party supporters at Tallinding. Jatta said they were attacked by the supporters of the United Democratic Party.
Jammeh’s party, the APRC, has won their first election in 1996 after coming to power through a military coup in 1994.
Jammeh has been accused of several human rights violations in their 22-year rule.
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