{"id":96161,"date":"2026-04-17T09:50:43","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T09:50:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/madi-jobarteh-critiques-gambias-weak-electoral-system"},"modified":"2026-04-17T10:18:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T10:18:44","slug":"madi-jobarteh-critiques-gambias-weak-electoral-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/madi-jobarteh-critiques-gambias-weak-electoral-system","title":{"rendered":"Madi Jobarteh Critiques Gambia&#8217;S Weak Electoral System"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. <\/strong><\/span><b>Madi Jobarteh, executive director of the Edward Francis Small Centre for Rights and Justice, said the Gambia has operated under a weak and fundamentally unfair electoral system since independence, raising concerns about the integrity and inclusiveness of democratic processes.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Speaking at the Solo Sandeng Memorial Symposium Lecture 2026, Mr. Jobarteh described elections as the highest expression of citizen sovereignty in a democratic republic, emphasizing that all citizens must have a genuine opportunity to participate in free, fair, and credible polls.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSince independence, the government\u2019s electoral system has been weak, flawed, and fundamentally unfair,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He noted that elections are intended to enable citizens to govern themselves through elected representatives, a process he said requires transparency and equal access.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cElections are the means by which citizens govern themselves; every citizen must have the genuine ability to vote in free, fair, and transparently credible elections,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Jobarteh traced the evolution of the country\u2019s electoral administration, arguing that past systems concentrated excessive power in the executive branch, undermining independence and fairness. Under the First Republic, he said, elections were administered by the Ministry of Local Government, while in the Second Republic, electoral commissioners were appointed solely by the president.<\/p>\n<p>He also criticized the current legal framework, pointing to what he described as prohibitive financial requirements for political participation. According to him, the law mandates nomination fees of one million dalasis for presidential candidates, 150,000 dalasis for National Assembly candidates, and two million dalasis for party registration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese ratios exclude ordinary citizens and restrict competition to the wealthy and the well-connected,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Jobarteh characterized the current trajectory as a weakening of democratic principles through legal and administrative measures.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTaken together, this is not reform,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is democratic backsliding.\u201d<\/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. Madi Jobarteh, executive director of the Edward Francis Small Centre for Rights and Justice, said the Gambia has operated under a weak and fundamentally unfair electoral system since independence, raising concerns about the integrity and inclusiveness of democratic processes. Speaking at the Solo Sandeng Memorial Symposium Lecture 2026, Mr. Jobarteh described elections [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":96159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-96161","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>Madi Jobarteh Critiques Gambia&#039;S Weak Electoral System - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Madi Jobarteh, executive director of the Edward Francis Small Centre for Rights and Justice, said the Gambia has oper ...\" \/>\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\/madi-jobarteh-critiques-gambias-weak-electoral-system\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Madi Jobarteh Critiques Gambia&#039;S Weak Electoral System\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Madi Jobarteh, executive director of the Edward Francis Small Centre for Rights and Justice, said the Gambia has oper ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/madi-jobarteh-critiques-gambias-weak-electoral-system\" \/>\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=\"2026-04-17T09:50:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-17T10:18:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2026\/04\/sm_1776408490.160286.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\/madi-jobarteh-critiques-gambias-weak-electoral-system#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/madi-jobarteh-critiques-gambias-weak-electoral-system\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Madi Jobarteh Critiques Gambia&#8217;S Weak Electoral System\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-17T09:50:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-17T10:18:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/madi-jobarteh-critiques-gambias-weak-electoral-system\"},\"wordCount\":311,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/madi-jobarteh-critiques-gambias-weak-electoral-system#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2026\/04\/sm_1776408490.160286.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Gambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/madi-jobarteh-critiques-gambias-weak-electoral-system#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/madi-jobarteh-critiques-gambias-weak-electoral-system\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/madi-jobarteh-critiques-gambias-weak-electoral-system\",\"name\":\"Madi Jobarteh Critiques Gambia'S Weak Electoral System - 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