By UDP Media Response Team
The video making rounds on the social media of a Senegalese National Assembly member, Mr. Oumar Cisse Souvane, complaining about Senegalese citizens acquiring Gambian national documents in the run up to elections should be a shame for both the Gambia’s Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and the Supreme Court of The Gambia. For it is the failure of the former, which led to the registration of such ineligible voters and the abdication of duty of the latter, that resulted in the unaccountability of such fraud in our electoral process.
The United Democratic Party rejected the December 4 2021 presidential elections on the grounds of electoral malpractices, which included but not limited to the registration of foreigners both in and out of the country; registration of voters outside of the registration period and time, officially announced by the IEC.
Because of these UDP refused to congratulate President Adama Barrow on his stolen victory. We refuse to do the same up to date, because we are convinced by the evidence in our possession that the election was rigged and fraught with fraud.
We presented a petition to the Supreme Court of The Gambia wherein we articulated the grounds for our rejection of the results but unfortunately that Court decided to rely on technicalities to refuse to adjudicate on the substance of our petition.
Now in the Senegalese National Assembly undeniable and impeccable information is disclosed confirming some aspects of the evidence the UDP was relying on to invalidate the December 4 presidential elections. The disclosure by Honourable Oumar Cisse Souvane a member of the Senegalese National Assembly should be a shame to the IEC and an embarrassment to the Supreme Court of The Gambia.
The same should be a concern to the authorities charged with the responsibility of issuing our national documents. The Honourable Senegalese National Assembly member states categorically that a huge chunk of inhabitants of at least ten villages he mentioned are in possession of Gambian national documents because these are very easy to acquire.
The response of Gambia’s Director General of Immigration is poor and untenable. The Director General’s assertion that the statement by the Senegalese Depute was an expression of opinion is not only false but also shows that he does not know what is a statement of fact and an expression of opinion.
Thus the UDP maintains that those who arbitrarily and willfully subvert the will of the Gambian people should understand that they will not escape the condemnation of advocates of free, fair and credible elections.