TAT Editorial By: Yankuba Manneh
Historically, Kiang has been known as the opposition stronghold. This simply implies that in all the 11 presidential elections held since Independence, the region has been consistently voting for the opposition and against the ruling party. A voting pattern that outlived Jawara’s 30-year rule and Jammeh’s 22-year reign.
If that were the case, then it would suffice to say the region does not vote mainly based on ethnic orientation, contrary to some popular myth that Kiang, a Mandinka-dominated region, votes along ethnic lines. This assumption is inaccurate, because both Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara and Yahya AJJ Jammeh came from different ethnic extractions. The former was a Mandinka, and the latter, a Jola; yet Kaing voted against them. In my opinion, the people of Kiang vote largely against the lack of development and marginalization of their area.
Prior to the 1994 military putsch, Kaing was divided into two constituencies – Western Kiang and Eastern Kiang (which comprised the Kiang Central and Kiang East Districts). After the change of government, the Constituency Boundaries Commission’s Order of 1994 demarcated the region into three constituencies: West, Central, and East.
This editorial looks at the period from 2017 to Saturday, 10 January 2026, to assess the veracity of a widely held belief about Kiang being UDP’s unshakable hold based on the number of elective seats. I think this period provides a fair lens for unbiased analysis compared to Jammeh’s regime. One may be tempted to say that the period was brutally autocratic, and rightly so, that the region was voting against Jammeh.
It’s important to note that seven political parties formed the grand coalition that ousted the former military strongman in 2016. Then Parliamentary and Local Government elections followed. This time, no coalition, but a scheme they brilliantly called “tactical alliance”, whatever that means to you. The strategy worked very well for the UDP, dominating the local government councils and National Assembly seats not only in Kiang but across the country.
Kiang has six councilor seats at the Mansakonko Area Council, two seats in each of the three electoral districts. In the 2017 Local Government election, the UDP had five out of six seats: Julafar ward and Banta ward (Kiang East), Massembeh ward and Kaiaf ward (Kiang East), and Kwinella ward (Kiang Central). One seat in this constituency went to Mama Kandeh’s GDC. In the same year’s parliamentary election, the UDP won all three seats in Kiang.
Kiang’s political landscape was never the same effective from 15 March 2019, when the UDP leader was given his marching orders as Vice President of the Republic, bringing the coalition to a head. Some coalition members are still in government despite the UDP-Barrow decoupling. The split becomes as clear as a crystal with each passing day. On 31 December 2019, the National People’s Party (NPP) was born, and Barrow was declared as its Secretary General and party leader, marking another vital turning point in our polity.
In the 2022 Parliamentary and Local Government elections, the UDP faced opposition from the rising NPP, challenging the yellow party’s grip over Kiang. This challenge resulted in UDP winning only two seats (Kiang East and West) and losing Kiang Central to an independent candidate.
The number of councilor seats UDP secured in the 2022 election plummeted. The NPP and the UDP shared the six seats equally, with each party having three seats. The distribution goes like this: UDP secures Massembeh, Jiroff, and Julafar wards, and the NPP wins Kaiaf, Kwinella, and Banta wards.
Consequently, it’s apparent that the UDP is either losing its traditional base or that the walls of the fortress have cracks and widening so deep that they could fall inward before December 2026, if the party does not pay proper attention. The 2025-2026 by-elections in Massembeh and Kaiaf wards corroborate this fact in no uncertain terms. Both wards have been retained by their respective parties after well-contested elections, showing the firm footprints of both the UDP and the ruling NPP in the region. The UDP party leadership should and must realize that its once base is slipping away, and they should get to work in earnest to reclaim Kaing if the region really means anything to the party’s political future. Is Kaing still UDP’s untouchable stronghold?
