{"id":93501,"date":"2026-02-07T15:44:42","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T15:44:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/gambians-must-vote-on-issues-not-parties"},"modified":"2026-02-07T17:28:59","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T17:28:59","slug":"gambians-must-vote-on-issues-not-parties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gambians-must-vote-on-issues-not-parties","title":{"rendered":"Gambians must Vote on Issues not Parties"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"ap-article-header-tag\"> <strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. <\/strong> <\/span><b>Biran Gai, a political analyst and lecturer in political science at the University of The Gambia, has warned that both the ruling National People\u2019s Party (NPP) and opposition parties face significant challenges ahead of the December 5 presidential election, emphasizing that Gambians rarely vote based on policy issues.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>In an exclusive phone interview, Gai addressed the ongoing debate between the ruling NPP and the main opposition, the United Democratic Party (UDP), over the recently released CepRass survey, with each side claiming favorable results.<\/p>\n<p>He cautioned the opposition against overinterpreting the survey data, noting that recent opinion polls in the country, including those by Gambia Participate and the Centre for Research and Policy Development, have closely mirrored election outcomes.\u201cNPP can claim satisfaction over this poll. I think what it tells us more, or what the opposition needs to learn more, is the need to come together to counter the narrative or to counter these perceptions ahead of the 2026 presidential election,\u201d Gai said.Gai also highlighted the fragmented state of opposition parties, pointing out that 18% of voters remain undecided\u2014a critical group that opposition parties, particularly the UDP, should target. \u201cBut as it stands now, I think all votes lead to an NPP victory if the opposition remains fragmented,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n<p>He stressed that the government\u2019s poor performance ratings necessitate serious attention. Yet, Gai noted a paradox: despite these ratings, respondents still indicate they will likely vote for the ruling NPP. This suggests that in The Gambia, voting behavior is driven less by issues or tangible political variables and more by incumbent party loyalty or candidate personality.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese are the two dynamics that the survey has exposed. That is when it comes to voting in elections, Gambians vote differently. They do not vote along the variables that are identified, such as the economy, irregular migration, unemployment, and women\u2019s employment issues,\u201d Gai explained.<\/p>\n<p>He urged opposition parties to focus their campaigns on these issues and craft messaging that resonates with the electorate to gain traction ahead of the elections.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-article-footer-note\">Find more news and analyses on <span class=\"ap-highlight-country\">Gambia<\/span> on the <span class=\"ap-highlight-brand\">Africa Press<\/span> website<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. Biran Gai, a political analyst and lecturer in political science at the University of The Gambia, has warned that both the ruling National People\u2019s Party (NPP) and opposition parties face significant challenges ahead of the December 5 presidential election, emphasizing that Gambians rarely vote based on policy issues. In an exclusive phone [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":93500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-93501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","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>Gambians must Vote on Issues not Parties - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press - Gambia. Biran Gai, a political analys ...\" \/>\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\/gambians-must-vote-on-issues-not-parties\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gambians must Vote on Issues not Parties\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press - Gambia. 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