The Gambia - 2017 Election
The Gambia elected a new parliament on 06 April 2017. The Gambia's first legislative election since the downfall of Yahya Jammeh was expected to inject democracy into a parliament which under authoritarian rule was derided as a rubberstamp assembly. Election observers believe the turnout will be very high. For the first time in many years, people in The Gambia feel that they will be able to change things by casting their ballots. For that reason, if none other, the elections can already be regarded as a success.
The Gambia's electoral system dates back to the colonial era and electoral procedure testifies to its British origins. Gambia's seven provinces are divided up into 53 constituencies. Each constituency is represented by a seat in the national parliament. 53 Members of the unicameral National Assembly are elected for a five-year mandate through the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system in single-member constituencies. A review of the constituency boundaries in 2015 increased the number of elected members in parliament from the then 48 to 53. Five additional members are appointed by the president. The vast discrepancy in the number of voters per constituency falls far short of ensuring the equality of the vote. A total of 49 of the 53 constituencies deviated by more than 15 per cent from the national average of 16,728 voters per constituency, with the largest constituency having 23 times as many voters as the smallest one.
The Constitution provides for the right to vote of all citizens, of eighteen years of age, with a requirement of either birth or residence in the constituency of registration. The IEC used the same voter register as for the December 2016 presidential election. This decision disenfranchised otherwise eligible voters who had turned 18 years of age between 1 December 2016 and 6 April 2017. In 2016, the IEC conducted a voter registration update ahead of the 2016-2018 election cycle but no deletions of entries, or changing of entries of voters who had moved to different places of residence, were facilitated. The IEC recorded 89,649 new entries resulting in a total of 886,578 registered voters. A significant number of deceased persons remain on the voter register. While the voter register needs improvement, political parties accepted the validity of the voters´ roll for these transitional elections.
The National Assembly is comprised of 58 members. The nomination of candidates took place between 9 and 12 March and resulted in a total of 239 candidatesrepresenting all nine registered political parties, as well as 42 independent candidates. No candidate nominations were rejected by the IEC. Only 20 among the nominated candidates were women (8.4 per cent). The three biggest parties are the APRC, the United Democratic Party (UDP) and the Gambia Democratic Congress (GDC). The GDC, the party of the presidential candidate Mamma Kandeh, was founded prior to the 2016 presidential election. Despite being relatively new, the GDC presented the largest number of candidates, contesting 52 out of 53 constituencies.
The seven political parties of the Coalition 2016 decided, after difficult negotiations, to present candidates under the banners of their individual political parties. The UDP approach was supported by the NRP and the Gambia Moral Congress (GMC). The People’s Democratic Organisation for Independence and Socialism (PDOIS) and the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), however, would have preferred the strategy of putting forward independent candidates under the Coalition 2016 banner, following the model of the presidential election. The UDP’s 'Tactical Alliance' approach, agreed by the parties, entailed that only one political party from Coalition 2016 were to present a candidate per constituency. However, the parties disagreed on the number of constituencies to allocate to the different parties. Each party therefore presented candidates in their perceived strongholds, based also on their financial capacity. The UDP presented the largest number of candidates covering 44 constituencies, followed by the NRP with 24. The PDOIS presented candidates in 22 constituencies. The PPP presented 14 candidates and the GMC, the Gambia Party for Democracy and Progress (GPDP), and the National Convention Party (NCP) presented five, four and three candidates, respectively. Ultimately, candidates de facto supported by such a tactical alliance competed in just 15 of the 53 constituencies.
The freedoms of assembly and expression of candidates were well respected during the election campaign. Political parties, as well as citizens, expressed themselves freely on political matters without fear of persecution. The three-week campaign period started on 15 March and ended on 4 April. All applications to conduct rallies were granted by the IEC. The unprecedented number of candidates led the IEC to allow campaign events late into the night.
A significant lacuna in the legal framework is the absence of any meaningful regulation of campaign and political party finance. Campaign finance is very lightly regulated, characterised by an absence of legal provisions to restrain the undue impact of money in the electoral process.
The Gambian media is undergoing a momentous liberalisation and media practitioners were able to exploit the newly acquired freedom of expression. However, the legal framework, as inherited from the previous regime, undermines freedom of expression and speech, although it is currently not applied. Citizens’, including media practitioners', right to information is not protected. There is no independent regulatory body for media, as there are no legal safeguards for public broadcaster editorial and financial independence.
All media outlets strove to provide a level playing field throughout the campaign period, applying a variety of genres, including debates among candidates. Online news sites and social media challenged traditional media’s at times self-referential narrative and community radios were instrumental in introducing candidates to the electorate. However, poor financial standing, dilapidated equipment and lack of professionalism limited media’s editorial output and curbed voters ability to make a fully informed choice.
Candidates focussed on national socio-economic development and on the improvement of living conditions within their constituencies. Most of the Coalition 2016 parties emphasised their affiliation with the Coalition. The GDC and the APRC expressed concerns over this use of the Coalition brand. The IEC instructed candidates to refrain from mentioning the Coalition 2016 in their campaigning or they would face the risk of revocation of candidature. The IEC request was largely ignored, but no further action was taken. On March 14, the Minister of Information issued a statement prohibiting any use of government resources for partisan politics.
On 7 April, the IEC announced the overall results of the National Assembly elections. The UDP won 31 seats, falling just short of a two-thirds majority. This was followed by the former ruling party APRC with 5, the GDC with 5, the NRP with 5, PDOIS with 4, PPP with 2 and a single independent candidate. Under Jammeh's rule, the APRC used its influence in local affairs to secure votes at the ballot box. In addition, the opposition was repressed which prompted seven of the country's eight parties to boycott the last parliamentary election in 2012. In the new elections, the APRC would find it difficult to win votes and seats outside its traditional strongholds. Jammeh's Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) meanwhile suffered a stunning reversal of fortune, going from 48 seats to just five.
The Gambia's longtime opposition won an absolute majority in parliamentary elections, easily defeating the party of ousted leader Yahya Jammeh, results announced 07 April 2017 showed. Official results announced by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) showed the United Democratic Party (UDP) had won 31 of the 53 available elected seats in the country's National Assembly. Five more seats are appointed by the president to give a total 58 seats in the chamber, giving the UDP a two-seat majority. An expected surge for the Gambia Democratic Congress (GDC), an upstart party which did not join the coalition, failed to materialise, with the youth-led movement gaining just five seats. Smaller parties who joined the coalition took 11 more seats, and one independent candidate took a seat.
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