By Buba Gagigo
Bakary Y Badjie, the National People’s Party (NPP)’s candidate for mayor of Kanifing Municipality in the upcoming Local Government elections, said that Oreime Joiner, one of the commissioners on the recently established presidential commission of inquiry into the conduct of Local Government Councils has not been active in politics for the past two years.
“The individuals that are mentioned are Oreime Joiner. He resigned a long time ago and according to our laws if somebody has not been an active politician for a two-year period, I think if I’m right about that, but I think about two years, the person is eligible to be a member of a commission. And so Oreime, when he was nominated as Vice Chairperson of the IEC, there was an argument that he was part of NPP as a co-opted member.
“And therefore he wasn’t qualified, and the president rescinded the appointment. But thereafter, he resigned from his political position and has, as far as I know, he has been apolitical since that time. And that is more than two years. So by that virtue, I believe he is qualified to be a member if he’s qualified to be a member of the Electoral Commission, then he should be qualified to serve in any other commission,” he said.
On Coach Alagie Sillah who is also a commissioner, he said “Coach Alagie Sillah, yes, was APRC, he served as a National Assembly Member but I think, again, I’m not very sure, but I know he was supporting another candidate in the parliamentary election. I don’t know who you said (the interviewer), but I think he was supporting the PDOIS candidate in the parliamentary election.”
The National People’s Party candidate,however, said every individual has the right to question the independence of certain candidates, and says he would have done the same;
“To be fair enough if you see somebody that is political, yes! you definitely would have queries about the person’s judgment or the ability to judge you fairly. That’s fair enough, but again, I want to believe that the president has people who advise him legally, and maybe they did their homework properly, and they believe that all the individuals that were identified are qualified base on the laws of the country to be appointed and that’s why they are appointed. But personally, every individual will have a right to question the independence of certain candidates, and I would have done the same thing if I was there,” he said.
Hon. Bakary Y. Badjie is the current Minister of Youth and Sports. He is now running to unseat against the incumbent mayor, Talib Ahmed Bensouda.