By The Editorial Board
The National Assembly of The Gambia has before it a proposal to amendment Section 19(1)(g) of the Local Government Act of 2002 (Amended 2015). The amendment is intended to remove the anti-democratic provision that imposes the tyranny of political parties over elected representatives in the local government system. Theoretically, that provision gives political parties and in practice their leaders the authority, over the electorates in wards and administrative regions, to remove from office the elected representatives of their parties. During the debate last week, one member of the Assembly, Ya Kumba Jaiteh, stood out of the crowd exuberantly as an ignorant politician. She disingenuously invited to her party members of the National Assembly, who argued that at its worst realization, Section 19(1)(g) of the Local Government Act would have chilling effects on democracy including even in the political parties where elected officials could be intimidated into silence precisely because they may fear expulsion from their parties over disagreements with the leadership or the majority of the members of their parties for any reasons such as policy differences, paying fidelity to their conscience, following their convictions or serving what they believed is in the national interest. Undoubtedly, deriding her colleagues in such a partisan mockery in the nation’s august assembly was, to all intent, purpose and effect, childish.
Section 19(1)(g) of the Local Government Act which was modelled after Section 91(1)(d) of the 1997 Constitution states:
19. (1) Subject to subsection (2) of this section, a person shall cease to be a member of a Council—
(g) if he or she ceases to be a member of the political party of which he or she was a member at the time of his or her election.
As enacted in 2015 during the tyrannical regime of Yahya Jammeh, Section 19(1)(g) of the Local Government Act aligns philosophically with Section 91(1)(d) of the Constitution which has been deleted from the Constitution by an Act of the National Assembly in 2017. Subsection (d) of Section 91(1) that was repealed from the Constitution reads:
91. (1) A member of the National Assembly shall vacate his or her seat in the National Assembly—
(d) if he or she ceases to be a member of the political party of which he or she was a member at the time of his or her election;
Section 19(1)(g) of the Local Government Act is the exact provision of Section 91(1)(d) of the Constitution which was removed from the Constitution because it was abused by Yahya Jammeh to avoid accountability to members of his political party. The tragedy of Section 91(1)(d) came out of the overcorrection in response to opposition members of the House of Representatives, in the First Republic, who crossed the carpet to the ruling People’s Progressive Party thereby weakened parliamentary governance supplanting in a one-party dominance. Ms. Jaiteh has no understanding of that political challenge because she may have been a child or probably not even born at the time.
The Local Government Act 2002 (Amended 2015) has its democratic provisions which rightfully give the electorates the power to remove from office elected officials in their local governments. Section 22 of the Act reads:
(1) Subject to this section, the mandate of a Chairperson or an elected member of a Council may be revoked by the a [sic] electorate.
(2) For the purpose of revoking the mandate of the Chairperson or an elected member of a Council, at least fifty per cent of the registered voters in the electoral area shall petition the Independent Electoral Commission for the revocation.
(3) On receipt of the petition referred to in subsection (2), the Independent Electoral Commission shall organise a referendum to decide the issue whether or not such Chairperson or member shall be recalled.
(4) The issue at the referendum shall be decided if at least –
(a) fifty per cent of the registered voters in the electoral area vote on the issue; and
(b) sixty per cent of the votes cast are in favour of the recall of the Chairperson or member.
As the political hack she’s, the people’s power is not sufficient for Ms. Jaiteh. The tyranny of her political bosses and the mobs in her party are required to keep everyone in check and on their toes. But why is the United Democratic Party (UDP), that over two decades told Gambians that everything Yahya Jammeh did in office was wrong or were designed only to perpetuate him in office, the biggest supporters to preserve the worst legacies of that tyrant? Did its leaders ever believed that Jammeh was really wrong or was it that they were envious for not having been in his position to wreck the havoc he did to our country?
With her exuberant display on the floor of the National Assembly in defense of the tyrannical legacy of Yahya Jammeh, Ms. Jaiteh has laid before the nation her monumental hypocrisy. As a nominated member in the National Assembly who was not elected by anyone in the country, she sued in the Supreme Court that the president who appointed her to that august body should have no power to remove her from office. She practically argued that not even the Gambian people have the authority to remove her from the office she occupies until her term expires. She, however, wants political parties who are just a subset of the voters, including their leaders at the national level who may not have even voted to elect those officials or be their constituents, maintain the unjust power to remove the people’s elected representatives from closest democratic institutions to them. Could any member of the National Assembly — either in the UDP or other political parties — who voted to repeal Section 91(1)(d) of the Constitution vote against the proposed amendment to Section 19(1)(g) of the Local Government Act and not become a hypocrite that is now Ya Kumba Jaiteh?
Ms. Jaiteh’s grandstanding on the floor of the National Assembly was a stunt in the melodrama to position her for one of the seats in the National Assembly that through discriminatory-quota system the Draft Constitution allocates for women in every region of the country. She alluded to the possibility of seeking that office in the Kanifing Municipal Council Administrative Region in one of her interviews. All it shows is that Ms. Jaiteh has no core value or a genuine belief in democracy but a permanent interest in naked and raw power. When that time comes to decide on her political ambition, would those democratic-minded people of The Gambia might pay attention as well.