Gambia Participates Marble App to give live certified Elections results

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Marr Nyang, the executive director of Gambia Participates

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.

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Mr. Sainey M.K. Marenah is a Prominent Gambian journalist, founding editor The Alkamba Times and formerly head of communications at the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) and Communications and PR Consultant for The Gambia Pilot Program, under Gamworks. Mr. Marenah served as the Social media Strategist and Editor at Gambia Radio and Television Services. He is also the Banjul Correspondent for Voice of America Radio. Sainey is a human rights and developmental journalist who has carved a strong niche particularly in new media environments in the Gambian media industry. Mr. Marenah began his career as a junior reporter with the Point Newspaper in the Gambia in 2008 and rose through the ranks to become Chief correspondent before moving to The Standard Newspaper also in Banjul as Editorial Assistant and head of News. He is a household name in the Gambia’s media industry having covered some of the most important stories in the former and current government. These include the high profile treason cases including the Trial of Former military chiefs in Banjul in 2009 to 2012. Following his arrest and imprisonment by the former regime of President, Yahya Jammeh in 2014, Marenah moved to Dakar Senegal where he continues to practice Journalism freelancing for various local and international Media organization’s including the BBC, Al-Jazeera, VOA, and ZDF TV in Germany among others. He is the co-Founder of the Banjul Based Media Center for Research and Development; an institution specialized in research and development undertakings. As a journalist and Communication Expert, focused on supporting the Gambia's transitional process, Mr Marenah continues to play a pivotal role in shaping a viable media and communications platform that engages necessary tools and action to increase civic participation and awareness of the needs of transitional governance to strengthen the current move towards democratization. Mr. Marenah has traveled extensively as a professional journalist in both Europe, Africa and United States and attended several local and international media trainings.

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