Gambia Participates, a youth-led civil society organization that works to enhance transparency and accountability in the public sector has developed a new app called ‘ the marble App’ designed to give live certified election results in interactive and innovative ways.
The Marble mobile application, named after the marble stone used in Gambian elections since independence in 1965, is a digital tool created by the anti corruption body to provide up-to-date, timely and accurate election information to electorates to promote election transparency and accountability.
The application is intended to inform and educate people on elections as Gambians prepare to head to the polls in less than two weeks away.
Announcing the development to The Alkamba Times, Marr Nyang, the executive director of Gambia Participates said: “We believe election information is invaluable, thus the need for it to be easily accessible. Beyond accessibility, the user-friendliness comes to mind. The Marble App is designed to give live certified election results in very interactive and innovative ways. Users can get to interact with the map of The Gambia to know which candidate is leading in a particular region. Even better, results for all the 53 constituencies could be accessed with the app.”
Explaining the rationale behind the initiatives ahead of the crucial Dec 4 polls, Nyang, a prominent civil society leader said: ‘It has been a bottleneck for those on the move and outside The Gambia to get live election results on Election Day. The Marble App is designed to ease those frustrations. In addition, Marble profiles candidates, political parties and makes it more exciting to read their manifesto’s.’
“We want to reduce voter apathy, especially within youths and as a result, the App provides answers to frequently asked election questions, provide text and video guide as to how one can vote and allows users to share their excitement after voting with the unique “I Voted” feature on the app. Results published on Marble are credible and entirely reliable as they are certified results.” He told Alkamba Times from his based in Banjul.
He said: “ We actually tested Marble during the 2018 Mayoral Election updating live election results and since then, we have been doing some background work to improve the features and functionality of the app. Marble is now back and available on both Google and Apple Store with interesting features.”
As a civil society working on strengthening good governance, Nyang said his group is deploying the biggest election observation mission for the 2021 elections to add credibility to the electoral process.
Gambia participates is an Anti-corruption body, fighting graft in The Gambia by leveraging modern digital tools and other methods to track government expenditures and engage people on national spending.
“The use of Technology has been helpful in promoting election transparency and timely access to election information in most countries around the world.
“Leveraging it to serve this purpose was a no-brainer for Gambia Participates as it looks towards innovative tools, digital or otherwise, to augment the work it does.” Nyang said.
The Marble App is now available to the public on the Google Play Store and Apple store. A thousand plus citizens used the app as a reference point during the mayoral elections when it was launched a week before the polls.
