Africa-Press – Gambia. Ousainu Darboe, leader of The Gambia’s main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP), has signaled plans for a significant diaspora presence in the country during the 2026 presidential election, saying party supporters abroad intend to monitor key polling stations across the nation.
Speaking in an interview on Coffee Time With Peter Gomez, Darboe said the UDP’s approach to election monitoring will be markedly different from previous years.
He explained that the party had initially relied on young people as polling agents, believing it was important to involve them in the management of party affairs, including elections.
“But then we later discovered that maybe we ought not to have used those young people. We ought to have used more elderly persons, people whose determination could be stronger,” Darboe said.
He suggested that youth agents may have been more vulnerable to pressure. “You know, an 18-year-old chap who just left grade 12, you can intimidate him or her, but not people who have lived in Europe for decades,” he said.
Darboe declined to disclose specific details of the UDP’s election strategy, saying he did not want the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to be aware of their targeted polling stations. However, he indicated that the party’s focus will be on areas where it enjoys strong support.
“We are going to make sure that we have good agents,” he said. “Because of the polling agents, they metamorphose into accounting agents at the end of the ballot.”
The veteran opposition leader also lamented what he described as the continued disenfranchisement of Gambians living abroad. “And this is because voting for the Gambian diaspora has been denied to them.”
He added that during recent visits abroad, he encouraged Gambians in the diaspora to return home between April and May to register during the supplementary registration exercise, in hopes of expanding their participation in the 2026 polls.
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