{"id":95884,"date":"2026-04-13T10:11:45","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T10:11:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/bayo-sonko-urges-peaceful-fair-elections-amid-political-tension"},"modified":"2026-04-13T10:57:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T10:57:26","slug":"bayo-sonko-urges-peaceful-fair-elections-amid-political-tension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/bayo-sonko-urges-peaceful-fair-elections-amid-political-tension","title":{"rendered":"Bayo Sonko Urges Peaceful Fair Elections Amid Political Tension"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. <\/strong><\/span><b>Sheriffo Bayo Sonko, a transport councillor at the Brikama Area Council and a prominent member of the United Democratic Party, called for calm and fairness in the country\u2019s upcoming elections, urging political actors and voters alike to prioritize unity over division.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>In an interview, Mr. Sonko said the electoral period should<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis year we are going to the polls, and we expect to have so many candidates or coalitions, but what is more important is we all have to go towards the election peacefully; we must be united, and we must be ready to be civil in whatever we are doing,\u201d he said.Mr. Sonko also emphasized the importance of voter registration, describing it as the foundation of the electoral process. Registration began this week.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRegistration just started yesterday; what we need to understand is election starts with registration,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He raised concerns about the integrity of the process, warning against any actions that could undermine public confidence. In particular, he criticized the potential involvement of non-citizens in voting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf leaders invite foreigners to get into the election, that shows that those leaders are not serving their people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, Mr. Sonko acknowledged the legal rights of naturalized citizens, distinguishing them from what he described as illegitimate voters. \u201cPeople who naturalize, that\u2019s a legal process, you cannot deny those people the right to vote, but we are not going to allow mercenary voters to get into our election,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>His remarks come as political activity intensifies ahead of the vote, with growing calls from across the spectrum for a transparent and peaceful electoral process.<\/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. Sheriffo Bayo Sonko, a transport councillor at the Brikama Area Council and a prominent member of the United Democratic Party, called for calm and fairness in the country\u2019s upcoming elections, urging political actors and voters alike to prioritize unity over division. In an interview, Mr. Sonko said the electoral period should \u201cThis [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":95883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-95884","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>Bayo Sonko Urges Peaceful Fair Elections Amid Political Tension - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sheriffo Bayo Sonko, a transport councillor at the Brikama Area Council and a prominent member of the United Democrat ...\" \/>\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\/bayo-sonko-urges-peaceful-fair-elections-amid-political-tension\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bayo Sonko Urges Peaceful Fair Elections Amid Political Tension\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sheriffo Bayo Sonko, a transport councillor at the Brikama Area Council and a prominent member of the United Democrat ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/bayo-sonko-urges-peaceful-fair-elections-amid-political-tension\" \/>\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=\"2026-04-13T10:11:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-13T10:57:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2026\/04\/sm_1776064971.414913.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\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\/bayo-sonko-urges-peaceful-fair-elections-amid-political-tension#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/bayo-sonko-urges-peaceful-fair-elections-amid-political-tension\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Bayo Sonko Urges Peaceful Fair Elections Amid Political Tension\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-13T10:11:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-13T10:57:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/bayo-sonko-urges-peaceful-fair-elections-amid-political-tension\"},\"wordCount\":293,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/bayo-sonko-urges-peaceful-fair-elections-amid-political-tension#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2026\/04\/sm_1776064971.414913.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Gambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/bayo-sonko-urges-peaceful-fair-elections-amid-political-tension#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/bayo-sonko-urges-peaceful-fair-elections-amid-political-tension\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/bayo-sonko-urges-peaceful-fair-elections-amid-political-tension\",\"name\":\"Bayo Sonko Urges Peaceful Fair Elections Amid Political Tension - 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