Africa-Press – Gambia. Honorable Suwaibou Touray, Member of the National Assembly representing Wuli East, has voiced concerns regarding the government’s initiative to issue identification cards to Gambian citizens residing in Mauritania.
In an interview, Hon. Touray suggested that the ruling party may be leveraging the ID issuance process for political gain. While acknowledging the absence of concrete evidence, he expressed skepticism about the government’s intentions, noting the historical use of incumbency powers to influence electoral outcomes.
“It is difficult for anybody to come without empirical evidence to say that is the case, but one can just assume that incumbents will never stop their games,” Touray remarked.
He further highlighted the common practice of ruling parties employing patronage and inducements to sway voters, stating, “I told you here, they will do inducement, they will do patronage, and they will do other tactics by virtue of their incumbency.”
Hon. Touray criticized the approach of distributing ID cards abroad, particularly within diaspora communities, arguing that passports—not national ID cards—are the appropriate documentation for Gambians living overseas.
“When people are outside, you don’t give them ID cards; you give them passports. What they will do is that they don’t have an ID card. Okay, okay, let’s give them an ID card, and then when it comes to registration, we take the team there again, or we go and bring them to come and register, and we return them,” he said.
He emphasized that the ruling party has the financial resources to facilitate such operations, referencing previous instances where individuals were transported from neighboring countries to participate in Gambian elections.
“Money is not their problem. You know that they used to go to Dakar and bring people to come and vote. They bring people from Kaolack. They bring people from Tambakunda and other places; people from Guinea-Bissau, they used to bring people,” he noted.
Touray emphasized the need for transparency, urging the government to clarify whether the initiative is connected to electoral matters and to ensure political party agents are involved to uphold fairness.
“If they are doing it for election matters, it should be clear that they are doing it for election matters so that all political parties have their agents there,” he stated.
He further remarked, “that has never happened in the country for anybody to go and give ID cards to people in other countries. Before you leave your country, in most cases, you have already left with passports and ID cards. How many of those people claim that their ID cards warrant a whole institution to send a team to go and register?”
Touray expressed his belief that the government might be engaged in activities linked to the upcoming elections.
“That is why I am saying I can come to the belief on the assumption or the suspicion that they are up to something, and it must be related to elections. It is suspicious election rigging, but it is not outright election rigging,” he said.
He emphasized the need for the revival of the inter party committee, saying, “The inter party should have come up again because this is the use of the inter party. Any time there is disrepute in the election process or in the political process, the inter party is constituted to come together and discuss the matter.”
Touray further warned of possible regional implications: “Because if they succeeded in Mauritania, they may extend it to Mali; they may extend it to Guinea-Bissau and other places. Because they have all these resources, they will send buses to go and bring all these people to come and register here and then go back again; when the election comes, they bring them again,” he added.
Hon. Touray emphasized that even securing 10,000 individuals from the nearest diaspora is a valuable achievement — even a single vote holds significance.
“We are not talking about 10,000, 20,000, or 30,000; it is not a small matter, which I will take to my central committee for us to discuss, to call for an inter party meeting of some sort to discuss this particular matter. I think it is very important,” he stated.
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