{"id":89226,"date":"2025-11-02T06:46:42","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T06:46:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/interior-minister-denies-election-motive-for-id-issuance"},"modified":"2025-11-02T07:25:30","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T07:25:30","slug":"interior-minister-denies-election-motive-for-id-issuance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/interior-minister-denies-election-motive-for-id-issuance","title":{"rendered":"Interior Minister Denies Election Motive for ID Issuance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. <\/strong><\/span><b>Interior Minister Abdoulie Sanyang has dismissed allegations that the government\u2019s decision to issue national identity cards to Gambians living abroad is politically motivated or linked to upcoming elections.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Speaking to The Fatu Network, Minister Sanyang said the initiative is part of the government\u2019s duty to ensure that all citizens\u2014regardless of their location\u2014can access essential national documents.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will continue to do it again and again, wherever Gambians are and they need it. It is the responsibility of the state to do the needful, to make sure that citizens have access to documentation,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n<p>The minister stated that the ongoing overseas ID issuance has no connection to elections, emphasizing that its sole purpose is to assist Gambians who are unable to travel home to obtain their documents.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you have an ID card that does not allow you to vote, you must look for a voter card. You don\u2019t need an ID card to have a voter card. The documents that can give you an ID card are the same documents that can give you a voter\u2019s card, so why would you spend money to acquire a voter\u2019s card when you can have it for free?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Minister Sanyang further recalled the government\u2019s previous overseas passport missions in Spain and Italy, which were well received by Gambians abroad.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we sent our team to Spain and Italy for Passports, everybody was clapping for us. A passport is our national document. We make sure that our Gambians who are abroad and cannot have access back home are provided with those facilities for them to have their documents to do their daily transactions. That is why governments spend lots of money at a loss,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He added that many Gambians abroad require national ID cards rather than passports, noting that similar initiatives are common in other countries. \u201cWhat is wrong with us issuing them those documents?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Gambia<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. Interior Minister Abdoulie Sanyang has dismissed allegations that the government\u2019s decision to issue national identity cards to Gambians living abroad is politically motivated or linked to upcoming elections. Speaking to The Fatu Network, Minister Sanyang said the initiative is part of the government\u2019s duty to ensure that all citizens\u2014regardless of their location\u2014can [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":89225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,12],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-89226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-policy","tag-gambia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Interior Minister Denies Election Motive for ID Issuance - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Interior Minister Abdoulie Sanyang has dismissed allegations that the government\u2019s decision to issue national identit ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/interior-minister-denies-election-motive-for-id-issuance\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Interior Minister Denies Election Motive for ID Issuance\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Interior Minister Abdoulie Sanyang has dismissed allegations that the government\u2019s decision to issue national identit ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/interior-minister-denies-election-motive-for-id-issuance\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-02T06:46:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-02T07:25:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/11\/sm_1762055692.466103.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/interior-minister-denies-election-motive-for-id-issuance#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/interior-minister-denies-election-motive-for-id-issuance\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Interior Minister Denies Election Motive for ID Issuance\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-02T06:46:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-02T07:25:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/interior-minister-denies-election-motive-for-id-issuance\"},\"wordCount\":346,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/interior-minister-denies-election-motive-for-id-issuance#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/11\/sm_1762055692.466103.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Gambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/interior-minister-denies-election-motive-for-id-issuance#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/interior-minister-denies-election-motive-for-id-issuance\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/interior-minister-denies-election-motive-for-id-issuance\",\"name\":\"Interior Minister Denies Election Motive for ID Issuance - 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