Justice Minister Dawda Jallow told members of the parliament on Tuesday that Gambians living abroad can only register as voters if they are assigned to parliamentary districts.
During the 2021 election bill review, Jallow addressed lawmakers’ questions regarding Section 88 of the Constitution.
“Section 39 operates Section 26, which grants the right to vote and register through the franchise,” he said.
Quoting section 39(1), “All citizens of the Gambia shall have the right to vote for the purpose of electing the President and members of the Parliament, and to register with the Parliamentary constituents for that purpose.”
He emphasized that voter registration is based on districts, as provided by the 1997 constitution. “You can register, but when you’re in the Gambia you have to be registered under the parliamentary constituency,” he said.
Two options for registering voters in the diaspora
Regarding section 88 of dividing the Gambia into 53 parliamentary constituencies, Jarow outlined two possible ways to register Gambia in the diaspora.
First, he proposed that overseas Gambians could register under their home constituency. “The Gambians of Uri West, who live in London, could be registered under the Gambia district as they have already narrowed their boundaries to 53 constituencies,” he said.
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Alternatively, he proposed to create a parliamentary constituency special for the diaspora. “We cannot register a Gambian diasporan unless we bound the diaspora into our constituency,” he said.
He added that Section 39(1) is entrenched and requires voter registration to be based on the district, but Section 88, which defines the number of districts, is not. “You have no choice but to distinguish the diaspora from parliamentary constituencies,” he said.
Jarow also revealed that the Gambian diaspora has submitted a proposal to allocate five parliamentary districts. He did not comment on the feasibility of the plan, but he acknowledged that the proposal is now widely known and that the diaspora group is engaging lawmakers from different parties.
Ultimately, he reiterated that registration is a prerequisite for participating in the election, whether voters or candidates, and that any solution must comply with constitutional provisions.
