By Omar Faye
Domestic Election Observers with their election stakeholder rated the election as ‘free and fair’, and reminded political parties to maintain peace as contained in the ‘Janjanbureh Peace Accord’ signed by them.
The Observers said the elections were conducted in an atmosphere of transparency and fairness from the voter registration, nomination process, campaigns, casting and counting of votes across the 53 constituencies within the seven regions of the Gambia as observed by both domestic and international election observers.
“We hereby state that based on our elections observation findings throughout the December 4thelections, we conclude that the December 4thelections are free and fair,” the observers said in a joint statement
The ‘Janjanbureh Peace Accord’ was signed by all the six contesting parties as a commitment to ensuring and safeguarding peace at all time during and after the elections.
“To accept the outcome of votes and results as announced by the IEC as long as the election is adjudged to be free , fair and credible, devoid of intimidation, violence and conducted in accordance with the provision of the law, knowing that our laws provide avenues for legal redress should that be necessary,” a section of the peace accord read.
The joint statement was recently signed and issued by the CSOs Coalition on Elections, Election Watch the Gambia, The Association of Non-Governmental Organisation (TANGO), Gambia Bar Association, the Centre for Research and Policy Development and the Gender Platform respectively.
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