SECRETARY-GENERAL CALLS FOR FREE, FAIR AND PEACEFUL ELECTION IN GAMBIA; SENDS SPECIAL ENVOY TO REAFFIRM UN COMMITMENT

SECRETARY-GENERAL CALLS FOR FREE, FAIR AND PEACEFUL ELECTION

IN GAMBIA; SENDS SPECIAL ENVOY TO REAFFIRM UN COMMITMENT

      This is text of a statement today by the Spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan:

      As the people of the Gambia prepare, for the second consecutive time in the past five years, to elect their President in multi-party democratic elections, scheduled for 18 October 2001, the Secretary-General has dispatched a Special Envoy to reaffirm the commitment of the United Nations to support the ongoing democratization process and to call on the Government, political leaders and candidates, as well as the population as a whole, to make every effort to ensure that the coming polls take place in a free, fair, transparent and peaceful manner. 

The Special Envoy, James Victor Gbeho, is a former Foreign Minister of Ghana and a current Member of Parliament.  He previously served as his country’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, and from July 1994 to May 1995 as the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Somalia.

The visit of the Special Envoy follows a multidisciplinary mission which the Secretary-General dispatched to the Gambia in September 2001 within the framework of an integrated preventive strategy, by which the international community undertakes to work in partnership with the Gambia to help strengthen the country’s capacity to maintain peace and stability.

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