By: Sarjo Kebba Touray, Social Researcher
As the Gambia heads to the polls in about a year, the lessons learned from the previous elections should be addressed. The issuance of attestation to acquire a voter’s card, as reflected in the court case of Gambia Participate (GP) and Centre for Research and Policy Development (CRPD) vs Rohey Malick Lowe and IEC for residents of Banjul, is an important matter that needs to be reformed. Going forward, the National Assembly should take the bold and necessary step of removing attestation as a requirement for obtaining a voter’s card. Additionally, it should assume the responsibility of issuing voter’s cards from the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and limit the IEC’s authority to matters related to the electoral process.
What is needed is a restructuring of responsibilities within the electoral framework to attain a transparent election in 2026. The IEC should not be responsible for managing documentation and implementation. Instead, issuing documentation should be assigned to a dedicated independent institution, such as the Ministry of Interior and or Gambia Bureau of Statistics (GBoS), while the IEC focuses exclusively on execution. This separation of roles will improve efficiency, transparency, accountability, and oversight, and could deliver an almost guaranteed free and fair election.
The criteria for acquiring a voter’s card should be a national document, such as an ID card or passport. This ensures that only bona fide Gambians with national documents probably acquired well before the election cycle are allowed to vote, and also encourages Gambians to put greater importance on these documents. This is in line with best practices elsewhere in West Africa, such as in Ghana, where attestation is no longer required for voter registration. Similarly, in other parts of the world, like India and most of the European Union countries, national documents like IDs and passports are required for registration through an integrated system to ensure free and fair elections.
Without these reforms, the current electoral system raises critical questions. Why would an 18-year-old make an extraordinary effort to obtain a voter’s card but show little urgency in applying for a National Identity Card? Why do we have the Government found wanting in the issuance of ID Cards and Passports, but almost efficient in the issuance of voters’ cards? This contradiction highlights the distortions created by the attestation requirement for voter registration. Citizens and the Government should be encouraged to use the same energy and efforts in acquiring and making available the ID Cards and Passport through reforming the attestation requirement for voter registration.
Eliminating attestation will also deliver concrete savings of millions of Dalasi in reduced administrative costs, time, and energy saved for citizens and institutions. More importantly, it will close loopholes that compromise the fairness of elections.
Therefore, I strongly urge Members of Parliament to prioritize the interests of the Gambian people. It is a clarion call to all MPs to understand that the reform is not only about efficient operational procedures of voter registration and election conduct, but it will also save resources, minimize electoral fraud, and ensure a credible democratic process.
