Banjul, 16th June 2025: The National Centre for Coordination of Early Warning and Response Mechanism (NCCRM) recently held an introductory meeting with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) at its office in Kanifing. The purpose of the meeting was to present their core objectives and find avenues to collaborate ahead of the 2026 electoral cycle.
The Director of the NCCRM, Binta Singhateh, introduced her team and thanked the stakeholders for their swift response and warm reception.
The Director said the Centre is ready to collaborate with the Commission to uphold national peace and stability. She affirmed that the meeting was very critical as it allowed the institutions to establish a strong partnership for a response to potential threats to human security.
The NCCRM team made a brief presentation about their work and how the partnership with the IEC is relevant to what they do and how it is important towards both institutions’ objectives and national development.
The presentation highlighted the background of the Centre, the mission, vision, the structures and the Centre’s mandate. The main thematic areas include governance, security, health, crime and environment. Each of these areas is key to human security and national development.
Officials from the IEC welcomed the initiative and expressed gratitude to the NCCRM team. Speaking on behalf of the team, Mr Samboujang Njie, Chief Electoral Officer at the IEC, acknowledged that the electoral season brings many uncertainties and that it is a time when hate speech is more prevalent both online and offline.
“We therefore have to be proactive as partners to address such issues, and we are more than glad to have you all onboard. We are happy to have the experts here too, as we will have to rely on them for their expert advice on certain issues,” he enthused.
The Vice Chairperson of the IEC, Mr Joseph Colley highlighted the importance of communication with stakeholders and pleaded that they stay in touch, as that is the only way both parties will be on top of all relevant news and developments.
Mr Kalilu Gassama, Security Analyst at NCCRM, affirmed the significance of the collaboration, noting that it will aid in accessing data, as they engage extensively with various stakeholders and publish reports very frequently. “So having access to data to back our reports is very key in the work we do, and we hope our partnership will make that easy for us,” he stated.
Mr. Abdoulie Touray, Crime and Criminality Analyst, urged the cooperation of the Commission in providing relevant information when necessary, as they sometimes do joint analysis with stakeholders.
It is part of the mandate of the NCCRM to analyse electoral vulnerabilities like hate speech, radicalisation as well as support peacebuilding efforts before, during and after elections
As the country gears towards a critical pre-election cycle, this partnership marks a great step towards ensuring a safe, free and fair environment for elections. Both institutions promised their commitment and continuous partnership. Potential areas of collaboration include joint election observation efforts and shared incident reporting mechanisms.
The meeting, presided over by the Vice Chairperson of the Commission, Mr. Joseph Colley, was also attended by the Director of the NCCRM, the team of five analysts from the Centre and the IEC team, including the Vice Chairperson, the Chief Electoral Officer and a senior team of directors.
By Mariam Dibba
