Gambia Opposition to Sue Poll Body 8 Weeks Before Vote
GAMBIA · ELECTIONS
Key Facts
- —The country The Gambia, mainland Africa’s smallest country, elects a president on 5 December.
- —What happened The main opposition party says it will sue the electoral commission.
- —The dispute The party says its voter data request went unanswered for four months.
- —The ID question An immigration officer told a court Semlex system access had ended.
- —Still open No case filed yet; the commission has not responded publicly.
The United Democratic Party says it will go to court to force the release of voter data, eight weeks before polling day.
The Gambia’s main opposition party says it is preparing to sue the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), which runs the country’s elections. The United Democratic Party (UDP) wants a court to force the release of voter data it requested four months ago.
The move comes eight weeks before the 5 December presidential election, in which President Adama Barrow is seeking a third term. For foreign partners and investors, it is an early test of whether the result will be widely accepted.
What the Opposition Says
Lamin Manneh, the UDP’s deputy administrative secretary for external affairs, set out the plan in an interview on Friday, 9 October. He spoke on The Grand Bantaba, a weekly programme of the Gambian outlet Kerr Fatou, which published his remarks on Saturday.
Manneh said he was travelling to Banjul, the capital, to meet the party’s lawyer and finalise the legal action. He did not say which court the party would use or when it would file.
He accused the commission of deliberately withholding information that, in his words, should take no more than five minutes to provide. “The cover-up is often worse than the crime itself,” he said.
Manneh said four months of silence suggested the commission had something to hide. Kerr Fatou reported that neither the commission nor the Immigration Department had responded to his claims.
The UDP is led by Ousainou Darboe, a veteran lawyer and former vice president under Barrow, who is again its presidential candidate. Barrow, in office since 2017, leads the governing National People’s Party (NPP).
The Missing Identity Records
Manneh also asked where national identity records produced by Semlex are now held. Semlex is a Belgium-based company that produced Gambian passports, identity cards and other documents under a government contract.
He said the party’s lawyer, Ya Kumba Jaiteh, had subpoenaed the Immigration Department to testify that week about the party’s request. According to Manneh, officials told the court they no longer held the data and did not know where it was.
A separate court record points in a similar direction. Foroyaa, a Banjul newspaper, reported on 7 October on testimony before a revising court, which hears objections to individual voter registrations.
Bakary Saidykhan, a senior Gambia Immigration Department intelligence officer, told Principal Magistrate Mam Samba Jallow that the department’s server was down. He said the department had system access while Semlex’s contract was in force and lost it when the contract expired.
That case was adjourned to 13 October, and Foroyaa did not link it to the UDP. Manneh argued that whoever controls the Semlex data could issue identity cards and passports to anyone.
He said voter cards were different, because new names could not be added to the register without detection. That distinction matters, since the identity documents are used to prove eligibility when Gambians register to vote.
A Campaign Already Running Hot
The commission’s calendar sets nominations from 26 October to 6 November and the official campaign from 10 November to 3 December. Revising courts, meanwhile, are still ruling on objections to individual voters, Foroyaa and The Standard have reported.
Manneh said UDP agents would sit beside commission officials throughout and check every voter card photo against its bearer. He said the party would publish its own tally from polling-station result slips, which he said the law allows.
He also said every UDP polling agent would be tracked by GPS, with an alert if one moved five metres away. He alleged inflated 2021 results in areas without UDP agents, a claim Kerr Fatou said could not be independently verified.
On West Coast Radio, Manneh separately called Barrow’s “Meet the People” tour an illegal campaign paid for with public money. He alleged the government had set aside 50 million dalasis (about US$671,000) for this year’s tour.
Barrow has defended his political remarks on the tour, saying governance and politics are inseparable, Kerr Fatou reported on 9 October. Conversions use open.er-api.com rates of 11 October 2026, at 74.55 dalasis per US dollar.
What It Means for US Readers
The Gambia’s 2016 election, when long-time ruler Yahya Jammeh lost to Barrow, is often cited as a democratic success in West Africa. A disputed result on 5 December would test that record in a region where several neighbours are run by military governments.
Questions over who holds national passport and identity records matter beyond the vote. Countries that rely on those documents for visa and border checks, including the United States, have a stake in their integrity.
Investors should note that Manneh, in the same Kerr Fatou interview, said a UDP government would cancel a recent emergency power-generation deal. He called the contract illegal because, he said, it did not go through parliament.
Many Gambians live in the United States and follow the campaign closely. A recent Foroyaa editorial described diaspora voting as an unfulfilled promise.
What Is Not Known
- Which voter registration data the UDP requested, and whether the commission formally refused it.
- Whether a lawsuit has been filed, in which court, and when a hearing could take place.
- Who now holds the Semlex records, and whether the Immigration Department’s lost access affects the voter register.
- Whether Manneh’s figures on tour spending and his claims about 2021 results are accurate; neither has been independently verified.
What Comes Next
Watch for the revising court hearing on Tuesday, 13 October, and any filing by the UDP’s lawyers in Banjul. Presidential nominations open on Monday, 26 October.
Nothing announced so far changes the election calendar. The commission still fixes polling day as Saturday, 5 December.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who plans to sue the Gambia’s election commission?
The United Democratic Party, the main opposition party led by Ousainou Darboe, says it is preparing the case. A party official announced it in an interview on Friday, 9 October.
What does the party want from the court?
It wants a court to compel the commission to release voter registration data it says it requested four months ago. The exact data has not been specified publicly.
When is the Gambian presidential election?
Polling day is Saturday, 5 December 2026, according to the commission’s calendar. The official campaign runs from 10 November to 3 December.
What is Semlex?
Semlex is a Belgium-based company that produced Gambian passports and identity cards under a government contract. An immigration officer told a court that access to its system ended when the contract expired.
Has the commission responded?
Not publicly. Kerr Fatou reported that neither the commission nor the Immigration Department had responded to the claims.
Sources: Independent Electoral Commission, Electoral Calendar 2026–2027; Kerr Fatou, UDP plans to sue election commission; Kerr Fatou, UDP polling agents; Kerr Fatou, “The vote will be protected”; Kerr Fatou, Meet the People tour; Kerr Fatou, Barrow defends remarks; Foroyaa, immigration officer testimony; Foroyaa, editorial on diaspora voting; The Standard, revising court ruling (all accessed 11 October 2026).
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief
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