IEC Trains Voter Registration Officials

FOROYAA Newspaper (Serrekunda)

Awa B. Bah

29 April 2011

The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has on Thursday the 28th of April 2011 commenced a five days training for the registration officials for voters the forthcoming general registration of voters from the 5 May – 17 June, 2011. The training which is taking place at the Paradise Suites Hotel has gathered 900 participants coming from all the regions in the country.

In his opening statement, Alhaji Mustapha L Carayol, IEC Chairman, said it is fifteen years now since the then PIEC gathered such large numbers to embark upon a very pivotal exercise towards the democratization process of the Gambia. He said a renowned firm, De Ia Rue, was first contracted to conduct the training for the first Voter Registration Exercise for the Second Republic. He noted that there is a great leap forward this time around as they are now introducing a computerized mode of registration of voters as opposed to the Manual Registration of voters then.

“In circumspect, the Commission has decided to introduce a new Voter Registration System to meet the current realities of the Gambia’s democratization process. This digital system is supported by CODE Inc. an internationally recognized company and it is in line with the Commission’s drive to modernize and add value to the Gambia’s electoral process, which continues to grow from strength to strength.”

Carayol said the last general registration of voters was conducted in 2001. He, however, noted that numerous errors and omissions were encountered in both the field operations and the data capture processes and that such unfortunate problems as missing names and other errors on the voter register were of serious concern to the Commission. He added that the re-occurrence of these problems will no longer be acceptable to the Commission.

He informed the participants that the Senior Registration Officers have had two days of intensive training at the Election House during which both the trainers and trainees toiled and did extensive research for the achievement of optimal results.

He said the CODE officials under the tutelage of Mr Alex Gysel will be conducting the 5 days comprehensive training session using the hands-on-training method to enable particip[ants to master the overall process and to equip and enable themselves with the capacity to register each and every voter in the most efficient manner.

“Let me at this juncture remind you that the money involved in this exercise is enormous so therefore there is no room for complacency and negligence”, said the IEC Chair.

He warned that the Commission will not hesitate to terminate the appointment of any temporary staff that is found wanting.

Concluding, Chairman Carayol urged the trainee registration officials to fully participate in the training sessions as this will be a factor for improved performance which will subsequently be very instrumental in their appointment as Senior Registration Officers, Supervisors or Registration Officers.

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