Alagie Manneh<\/b><\/p>\n
Africa-Press – Gambia. <\/strong><\/span>The Independent Electoral Commission has said it will engage the ruling NPP and other political parties that have so far failed to hold congress to do so.<\/p>\n The electoral law requires parties to hold a congress at least every two years. However, since its formation more than two years ago, the NPP has failed to organise any.<\/p>\n This has led to calls for the IEC to take action by deregistering parties like the NPP, but the IEC\u2019s director of communications said that would be the last option.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they don\u2019t hold a congress, we try to engage them, making sure that they comply,\u201d Pa Makan Khan told The Standard yesterday. \u201c[It is] not only the NPP; it\u2019s all the political parties. You don\u2019t just jump and deregister a political party. Normally, we engage them to ensure they comply. That is why we are sending a reminder to all the political parties that those who are due for congress let them hold a congress.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cYou know, there\u2019s one thing we have to know; deregistering I think, it\u2019s the last measure. We cannot just deregister a political party like that, having known all the difficulties they have gone through to build their political parties. That is why we try to engage them to make sure they comply. This time around we hope they will all do their congress accordingly, NPP or any other party.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Khan said the issue regarding congress is only one of the many electoral law requirements. \u201cThey should also submit their budget accounts. The congress is only one aspect of it. Even their executives should all be within the country. Of course, we know some of the parties are not fully complying. That is why we try to remind them to comply with the law,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He said there is no specific deadline as far as the IEC is concerned regarding the holding of a congress. \u201cThe parties, they all know, like if you hold your congress last year, this year you don\u2019t have to go for congress, you have to go next year. So, it depends on the various parties as and when they did their last congress.\u201d<\/p>\n Source: The Gambia | Standard News From The Gambia<\/b><\/p>\n For More News And Analysis About Gambia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alagie Manneh Africa-Press – Gambia. The Independent Electoral Commission has said it will engage the ruling NPP and other political parties that have so far failed to hold congress to do so. The electoral law requires parties to hold a congress at least every two years. However, since its formation more than two years ago, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":23401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[2355,2361,7622,260,2568],"class_list":["post-23402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-gambia","tag-congress","tag-gambia","tag-iec"],"yoast_head":"\n