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At the invitation of the Independent Electoral Commission of The Gambia (IEC), the Commonwealth Secretary-General, Mr Kamalesh Sharma, constituted a Commonwealth Expert Team (CET)1 for the presidential election in The Gambia on 24 November 2011. The CET was led by Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, former Foreign Affairs Minister of Nigeria, and comprised five persons. It was supported by a fourmember staff team from the Commonwealth Secretariat (See Annex 1 for full Team list).
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The Gambia achieved independence on 18 February 1965, as a constitutional monarchy within the Commonwealth, and subsequently became a republic on 24 April 1970, following a referendum. President Sir Dawda Jawara of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) dominated political life from independence until 1994 when Lieutenant Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh led the military coup that ousted him.
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The Gambia has a unique and effective voting system that is to be highly commended. In its report on the 2006 presidential elections, the Commonwealth Observer Group noted that ‘the quality of performance of the IEC has improved over the years.’ The CET affirms this conclusion and further commends the IEC for its role in ensuring equal airtime for all political parties at certain periods of the day on GRTS, and for regularly consulting with all parties through the Inter-Party Committee dialogue mechanism.
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