Basse, Brikama, Farafenni & Kanifing
By Louise Jobe & Mariama Marong
Revising court sittings have ended across The Gambia, with courts in different regions reviewing cases involving objections to voters’ registration and deciding whether the affected voters should remain on the voter list.
In Kanifing, Senior Magistrate Isatou Jallow presided over 65 cases and only one name was expunged (removed) from the voter register. At the same court, Principal Magistrate Isatou Sallah-Mba’I also presided over 65 cases and did not expunge any of them.
At the Brikama Magistrates’ Court in the West Coast Region, Senior Magistrate Demba Senghor presided over 70 cases. Of these, only one name was expunged from the voter list, while the remaining 69 were allowed to stay on the list. At the same court, Overseer Chief Magistrate Dawda Phatty presided over 60 cases. Four names were expunged from the voter list, while 56 were allowed to remain registered.
In Farafenni, Senior Magistrate Peter Ado Che presided over 255 cases. The court ordered the removal of 47 names from the voter list, while 208 were allowed to remain on the list.
At the Basse Magistrates’ Court, Magistrate M.S. Dem presided over 117 cases. Nine names were expunged from the voter list. Meanwhile, Magistrate Dibba presided over 120 cases. However, details of the decisions in those cases were not provided to Foroyaa yet. We will also endeavour to provide the details for Bundung as well.
Overwhelmingly, the failures of the challenges to voter registration were that the objectors did not know the people they were objecting against. In most of the cases reviewed, magistrates rejected objections because the objectors failed to provide sufficient evidence to support their claims, relying instead on suspicion. The magistrates consistently held that suspicion could not replace the burden of proof. The objections often involved claims that the objectees did not live in the areas where they were registered, were not known to the objectors, had been brought to register by an executive or ordinary member of the National People’s Party (NPP), or were believed to be underage. In some cases, objectors also relied on information from third parties to claim that an objectee was not a Gambian. However, the objectors often appeared not to know the people whose voter registration they were challenging. In the few cases where objections succeeded, the decisions were largely based on the magistrates’ close examination of registration documents, which revealed defects in attestation forms, including missing signatures and other irregularities. This suggests that some objections were upheld not solely because of evidence presented by the objectors, but also because the magistrates identified defects during their own review of the documents.
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