Who Gets On The Voter Roll? What Citizens, Observers, and Political Parties Must Know About The IEC’s Supplementary Registration Powers Under The New Elections Act 2025
By Sarjo Barrow, Esq.
As the Independent Electoral Commission (“IEC”) conducts supplementary voter registration ahead of The Gambia’s December presidential election, daily headlines have caught citizens’ attention on alleged irregularities, including document fraud and political pressure on registration officers. A critical question therefore hangs over the process: who decides who gets registered, and on what basis? The answer, under the newly enacted Elections Act 2025, is both clearer and more nuanced than many assume.
The Documents: What The Law Actually Requires
Under Section 13(2) of the Elections Act 2025, the IEC is legally required to register any person who produces any one of four documents: a birth certificate, a Gambian passport, a National Identity Card, or an attestation from an Alkalo or Seyfo certifying that the claimant is a Gambian. Just one. The Act says the Commission “shall register,” and Section 13(3) expressly prohibits the IEC from rejecting any valid document from this list.
What “Valid Document” Actually Means
The Act uses the phrase “valid document” in Section 13(3) but does not define it. Validity is a present-tense legal status, not merely a historical fact about a document. At a minimum, a valid document must not have expired and must not be obviously tampered with.
An expired passport or expired National Identity Card records a former legal status, not current evidence of anything. A passport in which the photograph has been visibly swapped out, or a birth certificate in which the name or date has been crossed out and rewritten, is not a valid document. The IEC may reject both and exercises no unlawful discretion in doing so.
The mandatory rule protects valid documents. It was never intended to compel the IEC to accept documents that carry no present legal force simply because a claimant presents them.
The IEC’s Discretion, or Lack Thereof
Accepting a document does not guarantee registration. Under Section 21(1), an Election Officer separately assesses whether a claimant possesses all three qualifications under Section 13(1): Gambian citizenship, age of eighteen years, and residence in or birth in the constituency where registration is sought.
If satisfied, the officer shall enter the name. If not, the officer shall disallow the claim and record the disallowance. Under Section 21(2), a disallowance is not final, and the claimant retains the right to challenge it before a Revising Court.
An IEC officer who refuses to accept a valid document is acting unlawfully. An officer who accepts the document but disallows the claim on qualification grounds, records the disallowance, and informs the claimant of their appeal rights is acting entirely within the law. Every observer and party representative at registration should know the difference.
The Alkalo Attestation: A Serious Gap
The provision that raises the most immediate integrity concern is Section 13(2)(d). All that is needed is an attestation from an Alkalo or Seyfo certifying that the claimant is a Gambian. Nothing more. No requirement that the attesting leader be from the claimant’s home village. No requirement that the attestation state where the claimant was born or currently resides.
A person born in Farato who has never visited Basse could approach an Alkalo in Basse, obtain an attestation, and trigger the mandatory registration obligation in that constituency. The old Elections Act, Chapter 3:01, required a document certified by the District Seyfo or Alkalo of the village of birth. That geographic anchor is gone.
An attestation certifying only citizenship also does not satisfy the separate residency or birth requirement under Section 13(1)(c). A claimant presenting only an attestation may therefore still have their claim disallowed under Section 21 if the Election Officer is not satisfied of any meaningful constituency connection.
If it has not already done so, the IEC should issue administrative guidance requiring that attestations name the claimant specifically, state the basis of the attesting leader’s personal knowledge, and bear a date and signature. An unsigned, undated attestation naming no specific claimant carries no legal force and does not trigger Section 13(2) at all.
Diaspora Registration
Section 13(1) entitles a person to register in a constituency where they were born, not only where they currently reside. Gambians living abroad who were born in a Gambian constituency retain a legal basis for registration there. A Gambian passport is sufficient to trigger the Section 13(2) obligation. Simply put, a Gambian in Senegal, the United Kingdom, or the United States can register at their birth constituency without currently residing there. Political parties with diaspora networks should be actively communicating this right to their members abroad.
No Self-Help: What Observers and Parties Cannot Do
This must be stated plainly. The Elections Act 2025 provides no self-help remedy. No observer, party agent, or citizen has any power under the Act to stop a registration, physically intervene, or forcibly prevent a claimant from being registered. Attempting to physically detain a claimant, intimidate a registration officer, or disrupt the registration process is not lawful intervention. It is obstruction and, potentially, a criminal offense in its own right.
The question of a private arrest sometimes arises in heated election environments and deserves a direct answer. The Gambia’s Criminal Procedure Code does recognize arrest by a private person where an offense is committed in that person’s presence. Presenting a forged document at a registration center is a criminal offense under Section 111(1)(d) of the Elections Act 2025, and the CPC framework does not technically foreclose a private arrest in such a situation. But three things must be clearly understood before anyone considers going down that road.
First, a private person who effects an arrest has no power to detain, interrogate, or punish. The law requires that the arrested person be handed over to a police officer without unnecessary delay. Second, a wrong or politically motivated arrest exposes the arresting person to serious legal liability. The Constitution of The Gambia guarantees every person the right to liberty and protection against arbitrary arrest. Third, and most practically, the registration environment is not the place for private arrests. The law has provided proper tools, and those tools are both more effective and far less dangerous than physical intervention.
What To Do Instead: The Reporting Mechanisms
Observers, parties, and citizens who witness what they believe to be document fraud, an invalid registration, or an IEC officer acting unlawfully have a structured set of lawful steps available. Each step creates a record, and that record matters. It is not idle paperwork. It is the evidentiary foundation for every subsequent legal challenge, including proceedings before the Revising Court.
Record first. Note the date, registration center, name of the claimant if visible, the nature of the document presented, and the specific concern observed. Without a contemporaneous record, no subsequent step has an evidentiary basis.
Report to the IEC. Under Section 127 of the Elections Act 2025, the Commission is required to refer all offenses under the Act to the Attorney General for prosecution. A written complaint submitted to the Commission, with particulars of the suspected offense, puts the IEC on formal notice. If the IEC then fails to act on a credible report of a Section 111 document offense, that failure is itself a matter of accountability and can be referenced in any subsequent proceeding.
Report to the police simultaneously. There is no legal requirement to wait for the IEC to act before going to the police. A suspected document offense under Section 111 is a criminal matter entirely within the police’s jurisdiction. Reporting it to the police at the same time as the IEC creates a parallel record, ensures the matter cannot be buried administratively, and may prompt an independent investigation. Taken together, both reports significantly strengthen any subsequent legal challenge.
File a formal objection under Section 25(3). Once the voters’ list is published, any registered voter may, within fourteen days, serve a written notice of objection on the appropriate Electoral Officer in the prescribed form. The objection triggers a formal hearing before the Revising Court under Section 27, presided over by a First Class Magistrate, who must hear and decide the matter within sixty days.
Escalate to the High Court if necessary. Under Section 32, a person dissatisfied with a Revising Court decision on a point of law or material fact may appeal to the High Court within two days of the decision.
Every written complaint to the IEC, every police report, every objection filed, and every record made at the point of registration feeds into this chain. Used together and in sequence, they constitute a coherent, legally grounded challenge to any registration that should not have occurred.
Based on the Elections Act 2025 (Assent Copy) and the Election======———————-===—-s Act Chapter 3:01, sourced from Law Hub Gambia.
