By Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT
Two weeks ago Gainako Online News published that the IEC has deleted some 25,000 voters from the register. This was after comparing the provisional voters’ register issued at the end of the six (6) weeks of voters registration and the final voters’ register issued in September 2021. After receiving numerous queries from the public on the 25,000 voters removed from the register Gainako’s Editor questioned IEC about the deletions at a Stakeholders’ Forum held on October 6th 2021.
Yusef Taylor: We’ve observed that after the six weeks of voter’s registration was concluded we noted that over 987,000 voters were registered and we saw that two weeks back IEC announced that the voters’ register was reduced to 962,000 voters on the register. Can the IEC please explain this as the Commission had said there were some 3,000 multiple registrations which is very far from the reduction of 25,000 voters from the register? Many people want to know how this came about because some people are concerned, they may have been removed from the voters’ register.
IEC Chief Electoral Officer, Sambujang Njie: On the voters’ registration, perhaps you did not attend the last monthly stakeholders’ forum we had in September that’s why you’re asking about this question of the 987,000 and the 962,000 registered voters making the difference of 25,000 voters.
We have clarified these things that the 987,000 that we gave at the time was provisional. When we verified all the data we collected on the field, sort them out, done the correction it goes down to 962,000. There should not be any worry for any voter who’s registered thinking that his name is deleted. No.
During the process, there were issues regarding photographs of applicants and they were redone. There were people who also for one reason or the other their names were not correctly spelt and they asked for corrections. So, all these things were taken care of and our system is such a way that anything that goes in you cannot delete in the field. And what the field was reporting is what they were producing.
So, if you repeat you count those ones. So those ones were filtered and corrected this is why it went down. And again, like we always say if there is a Provisional there is always Final. In terms of elections if the final is less than the provisional were good to go. If the final was more than the provisional then I will not be pleased because you will accuse us of over registration or hidden registration. So, the 25,000 that is being talked about in town is a result of the verification and processing of the data we have received. So, I think like we said the last time the IEC has concluded on the voter’s registration. It’s now a thing of the past for us. We have activated the Presidential Elections and today we are on the nomination. So we are moving on.
Editors Note: As stated by the IEC CEO, Gainako’s Editor Yusef Taylor, didn’t attend the Stakeholder Meeting as he was already engaged in another meeting. However, a Gainako reporter attended the meeting and two articles were published from the meeting. Links to the two articles are available below.
IEC: The Gambia to ditch Marbles for Paper Ballots Post December 4th Presidential Elections
Revising Courts will not Convene as Double Registration Unchallenged says IEC