Elections Watch Committee Shows First-half Of Campaign Went Peaceful

Ramatoulie Jawo

The Elections Watch Committee (EWC), comprising at least 3 organizations, reported that the first half of the presidential election campaign has been largely peaceful.

“The first half of the campaign period has been largely peaceful” and “election Watch Observers’ reports due the initial period of the campaign show that political parties and candidates have launched their campaigns and continue to campaign with no major restrictions”, Buboucarr Sambou, President of Peace Ambassadors The Gambia (PAG), one of the member organisations of Elections Watch Committeestated.

However, he noted that the observers witnessed and heard of several instances of ‘abuse’ of state resources such as the use of vehicles and buying of voter cards by some candidates and political parties. 

Sambou called upon political parties to adhere to the code of conduct and code of election campaign ethics.

Awa Colley, programme officer at PAG said the committee also reported the conduct of civil and voter education efforts by the IEC, CSOs and the media in some constituencies; and added that the report indicated that campaigns are yet to reach a large portion of the country.

The Elections Watch Committee is a partnership of 3 organizations and other network members with different expertise and background collaborating to observe the 2021 presidential election.

The findings of the committee are based on the reports it received from its 59 campaign observers deployed across the 53 constituencies between the 9^th November and 17^th November. 

The committee disclosed this information on Friday at a press conference at a local hotel in Kololi.