Demba Ali Jawo, Former Minister of Information
By D. A. Jawo
The decision by members of the ruling National People’s Party (NPP) and its allies in the National Assembly to vote against a law that would have allowed Gambians in the diaspora to be registered to vote in our elections, had been received with disappointment by many people, particularly those in the diaspora.
It is indeed hard to understand why, after more than eight years in office, the government of President Adama Barrow has still not put in place the necessary constitutional amendments to allow Gambians in the diaspora to vote in this country, despite all the noise that the government had been making about the issue. This unpopular decision is yet another apparent indication of the regime’s lack of political will to extend the vote to that important segment of the Gambian population, especially considering the fact that they annually contribute more than US$700 million to the economy.
We have seen that when the government wanted to change the age limit and other provisions of the 1997 Constitution in order to allow some of them to serve in certain positions, it did not take them more than a few months to do so, but here we are, more than eight years since coming into power, the regime has still not been able or willing to amend the law to cater for diaspora voting.
It is indeed quite disingenuous and cynical on the part of the NPP to accuse the United Democratic Party (UDP) of failing to make those necessary amendments that would have allowed the diaspora to vote when they formed the majority in the National Assembly. Obviously, all those bills that the NPP had quoted in their press release accusing the UDP of hypocrisy actually originated from the executive and therefore, the onus was definitely not on the UDP National Assembly members to initiate those constitutional amendments, but the executive.
While we can agree with Attorney General Dawda Jallow that there is a need to make some amendments to the electoral law in order to cater for diaspora voting, but he did not give any justifiable reason as to why it had taken them all this time to bring the issue before the National Assembly. However, contrary to his position on the matter, there is absolutely no need to wait until separate constituencies are created in order for the diaspora to vote in the presidential elections or referenda because in those elections, the whole country is treated as one constituency. All that they could have done was to make a simple amendment to the law in order to cater for them. This is because everyone in the diaspora hails from a constituency in this country, therefore it is quite a lame excuse to insist that new constituencies should be created before they could be registered to vote. What is preventing them from being registered in those constituencies that they hailed from rather creating separate ones for them? In fact, if the current law allows people living in different parts of the country to register to vote in their places of origin, why can’t the same situation be allowed for those in the diaspora?
Therefore, if the political will was indeed there, the government could have easily made a few amendments to the law in order to cater for the diaspora to vote in the elections. That is exactly what had happened in many other countries in the sub-region, and there is no reason why it could not be implemented here. For instance, if a country like Guinea Bissau, with a weaker economy and governance structure can cater for their diaspora to vote in their elections, certainly The Gambia could have done the same, if indeed the political will had existed.
This move by the NPP and its allies to vote against the law appears to be a deliberate attempt by the government to continue to deny the diaspora the right to vote in our elections, apparently because they are convinced that a majority of them would not vote for President Adama Barrow and his government. Even the very fact that they waited until now, barely a year before the next presidential elections, to bring up the issue, is an apparent sinister attempt to prevent them from voting in the presidential elections, lest their votes tilt the results in favour of the opposition.