The President His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr. Yahya Jammeh has called on Gambians who attained the voting age to fulfil their constitutional duty by voting massively in the upcoming elections.
President Jammeh was speaking Thursday at State House where he together with the First Lady, Her Excellency Madam Zineb Yahya Jammeh was being registered for the new Bio-metric Voter's Card by officials of the Independent Electoral Commission. The Gambian leader, who is ending a 3rd term mandate, wants the elections to be the last decisive blow to his opponents:
President Jammeh Said:
"Knowing that Gambians are very grateful people, they are development oriented; we are going to teach the opposition a lesson. For all opposition in Africa that oppose progressive, development -oriented governments, this will be the final 40 days charity for all oppositions in this country".
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Much has changed since 1994. The advent of the July 22nd Revolution did not only bring along needed changes in infrastructural development, but the leader of the revolution had at the time a clear cut policy in improving the overall electoral policies. This led to the creation of the Provisional Independent Electoral Commission (PIEC) which was later transformed into the Independent Electoral Commission, an institution mandated to organising and monitoring all elections in The Gambia, under the banner of probity, transparency and fairness. These policies have underpinned The Gambia's democratization process, sustaining an electoral system that is easy to use even by illiterates, and which cannot be rigged:
President Jammeh said:
"What I have is the best system which is fool proofed and that is why countries where elections are rigged do not use our system. Our system cannot be faulted, in the sense that no result can be sent to the IEC headquarters from any polling station without all the parties confirming that these are the numbers of votes counted. So you count, everybody is represented and they sign. If it has to be endorsed by all representatives of political parties at the polling station before they are sent to the IEC headquarters for announcement, so now where would you cheat? Because I don't expect that my APRC representative there, would allow APRC to be cheated and then sign knowing that APRC has been cheated".
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President Jammeh commenting on the new voter's card:
"I think these are very high quality voter's cards and I don't think people should use them an ID card. But all those of voting age should all go and register because it is a right, because you decide the future leadership of this country. The power you have is to use your voter's card. It is not only good to have the voter's card, but you should also go out and vote, because by voting you are demonstrating that you have a say in the way you are governed".
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Over 800,000 eligible voters have been registered by the electoral body since the start of the process in May. And registration is set to end Friday, 17th June, 2011, while Presidential elections are slated for November 24th.
With regards to the APRC, President Jammeh has a lot to bank on, and they are numerous. Ranging from sound economic policies, to a variety of development oriented programmes, the Gambian leader has single handedly led the greatest transformation ever seen in The Gambia. He has been able to turn the country from nothing to something.
Courtesy of Abdou Njie, GRTS
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