By Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT
The Gambia’s Inter-Party Committee (IPC) has released a statement condemning the Abuse of State Resources (ASR) just days after a letter was issued from the Secretary-General at the Office of the President requesting for Government Vehicles to be mobilised for the upcoming National Assembly campaign.
The campaign period for the Gambia’s National Assembly elections is scheduled to be held on 17th March to 7th April 2022 and the President has scheduled to hold his “Nationwide Meet the People Campaign Tour from 19th March 2022 to 6th April 2022”. According to the letter issued by the Government Vehicle Control Unit (GCU) and sent to Ministries and Government Departments, Institutions should provide a vehicle and driver who should “report to GVCU at Denton Bridge on Wednesday 16th March 2022 at 10:00hrs without delay for logistics arrangement for the advance security team, protocols and household”.
This is not the first time that such a letter has been issued by the GVCU. A letter was issued on 5th March 2017 requesting “vehicles for National Assembly selection of candidates by Coalition Executive members nationwide”. The letter noted that “the executive coalition members will embark on a nationwide tour for the selection of candidates for forthcoming National Assembly member’s Election on April 6th 2017”. This was months after the Coalition defeated former President Jammeh at the December 2016 Presidential Election.
Speaking on behalf of Hon Musa Amul Nyassi the co-chair of the IPC, Ms Isatou Ceesay delivered a speech condemning the use of state resources. “We are also aware that it is a violation of election campaign ethics for a political party contesting elections in the Gambia to use public resources for the benefit of that political party whether a ruling party or an opposition party,” said Ms Ceesay.
Reading a written statement at an event organised by Gambia Participates focusing on abuse of state resources Ms Ceesay reiterated that “according to the final report of the European observer mission for the December 4th 2021 presidential election in the Gambia, the incumbent political party has used state resources in some instances”. Besides the European observer mission’s finding Ms Ceesay highlighted that “it is also reported largely by social media that the ruling party during that election state resources particularly government vehicles fuel during their canvassing of votes”.
According to her statement “during a contest by different political parties in national elections, it would be an infringement of the standard rules of engagement if one of the contesting parties is allowed and able to use the state resources that belong to everyone during the campaign period, while others are left to draw support from only their party and or individual sources”.
The statement from the IPC representative notes that abuse of state resources “can give more advantage to one party at the expense of the other and therefore may result to a violation of the IPC Codes of conduct by aggrieved and opposing political parties”.
According to the Election Act first enacted in 1996, provision 91 focuses on “prohibitions during election campaigns” and indicates that “a candidate or political party shall not, during an election campaign period (b) abuse or engage in the improper use of property of the Government for political propaganda purposes; (c) campaign in public offices or educational institutions during working hours or hours of instruction”.
Although the rules exist there has not been any visible implementation of the regulations. Provision 102 of the Elections Act provides for the “reporting of illegal and corrupt practices” and indicates that illegal practices can be reported to the Supreme Court and individuals reported have a right to a fair hearing. According to provision 102 (4) (a) persons found wanting by the Supreme Court can be “struck off from any register of voters on which it appears; and” political parties can be deregistered or suspended to “prevent a recurrence of the illegal or corrupt practice by the party”.
The EU Observation Report highlights that “the distribution of goods and misuse of state resources impacted negatively on the campaign. The distribution of various goods was directly observed by the EU EOM at several rallies held by the incumbent’s party. There were also widespread allegations of distributions of money through village chiefs (alkalos) reported to EU EOM observers. If true, these practices are in breach of the IEC code however no action was observed to have been taken by its representatives. In addition, the EU EOM directly observed instances of misuse of state resources. Overall, the campaign costs were very high, with the NPP spending far more on political publicity than any other campaign. Lack of campaign finance regulation added to an unlevel playing field”.
It can be recalled that the UDP has challenged the election results and have highlighted a significant amount of abuse of state resources in the 2021 Presidential Election via a petition submitted to the Supreme Court. However, the petition was thrown out of the Supreme Court for failing to comply with Rule 11 on petitions which requires the petitioner to serve the responder within five days after presenting the petition.