Gambians are preparing for the National Assembly election scheduled on 9 April 2022, which will see them vote to elect a new batch of legislators to represent them in the House until 2027. In The Gambia, transportation is one of the biggest challenges for many people, especially those living in the urban area and commute to and from work or school on a daily basis. The daily commuting is increasingly becoming a misery for many commuters because there are always traffic jams on the roads; especially during rush hours. The situation increases daily and now becomes a nightmare for many. Barely less than a month to the 9th April parliamentary election, voters outlined their priorities that would influence their decision to vote for a candidate, come the day. Many voters have already decided to vote for candidates who would be their voice in the parliament and advocate solutions to their problems, one of which is to ease the current transportation challenge they grappled with. Worry of voters Abdoulie Sanneh, a student and a resident of Brikama who travels to school in Sere Kunda daily is eligible to vote in the 9th April election. Many issues would influence his choice of candidate, but key among them is better transportation system. He would vote for that candidate who would present to the executive for urgent attention, his problems including the transportation constraint he faces now. “Yes I will be voting in the parliamentary elections and transportation should be on top of the agenda for any candidate who wants to earn my vote,” the student expressed. Like many others, Abdoulie acknowledged that the current transportation constraint needs urgent attention; and said parliamentarians as people’s representatives should be pushing at the National Assembly issues affecting their electorates. “They will be our representatives at the decision-making body of the Nation. So issues affecting us are what they should be tabling there (Parliament). Transportation is a misery and the incoming National Assembly should take it seriously," he suggested. Another Student, Lamin Jassey at the Management Development Institute (MDI) in Kanifing, commutes to school from Brikama every day. Like his colleague, Lamin agreed that the difficulty in transportation should be every voter's concern and any politician whose agenda does not cover that should not be considered. “For me, any candidate who does not have any plans to put forward the transportation problems to the executive for it to be addressed is not worthy to have my vote,” he said. Jassey urged the rest of the electorates to vote wisely by voting for competent candidates who would stand for the interest of their people at the National Assembly. Baboucarr Joof, Sinchu Baliya goes to work in Banjul, but getting to and from work in the morning and in the evening is always a nightmare. He called his vote, his voice and would cast it for a candidate who will stand for his interest at the National Assembly to get the transportation problem immediately addressed. “The executive cannot spend money without approval from the National Assembly. Therefore, if the executive brought a budget, the NAMs could cut from other areas of less importance and allocate it to the Ministry of transport to build roads. If more roads are built, it will help ease the transportation difficulties,” he noted. The Sinchu Baliya resident assured that candidates eyeing the Old Yundum constituency seat who wants his vote should be ready to pioneer fixing the transportation constraint at the National Assembly, when elected. Polling staff verifying details of a voter Efforts by Transport Union Omar Ceesay, President, Gambia Transport Union said the lack of good roads in the Gambia is a big factor in the transport difficulty, and added that the government should build more linking roads to ease the pressure on the highways. "I think the government should work on more feeder roads. They should collaborate with the councils and municipalities to construct more feeder roads. So that if we have more feeder roads, the main roads will not be congested," he noted. Ceesay informed that his union is working with the government to introduce a new system called road permitting or road licensing to curb the transportation constraint. The new system, he added, would establish picking points and designate destinations for vehicles; saying ‘this would ease the many challenges commuters face daily’. Commitment by candidate Abdoulie Ceesay was the MP for the Old Yundum Constituency whose tenure just ended. He is seeking re-election under the National People's Party ticket. He acknowledged that transportation is a problem affecting many people; and recalled advocating it among other issues affecting his people, during his just ended tenure. "I think the focus should be adding more buses for GTSC and changing the company from a private one and placing it under a ministry that will be responsible for it," he suggested a solution. Ceesay promised to continue advocating issues affecting his people at the National Assembly including the transport challenge, if re-elected. Meanwhile, in recent years, The Gambia’s population has increased significantly hitting close to two million people, according to the 2013 Gambia Bureau of Statistics population census. This means that there is an increased number of commuters plying the road. As such, there is also an increase in the number of vehicles plying the roads compared to a few years ago. This leads to traffic congestion which causes delay to many commuters in reaching their desired destination on time. Many times, commuters would spend a long time hustling for a vehicle for hours, to commute to and from work or home. Now that the country braces electing representatives in the 58-member National Assembly; 53 of whom are elected by electorates in the 53 constituencies across the country; and 5 are nominated by the President as per the the 1997 Constitution, voters decided to vote in representatives who would advocate rapid solutions to their problems, mainly transportation.
Voter turnout in presidential elections is always far too high than parliamentary elections in The Gambia. This is because of the significance, voters attached to voting in presidential, over parliamentary elections; despite the proximity and impacts of parliamentarians on the lives and livelihoods of the electorates through their oversight, legislative, representation, resource allocation, among other functions. The Independent Electoral Commission statistics on the 2017 parliamentary election indicated that many voters did not turn out to vote in the election, compared to the 2016 presidential election. The IEC database indicated that 379, 320 people cast their votes in the 2017 National Assembly election, compared to the 886, 578 Gambians who cast their votes in the 2016 presidential election. The tally indicated a difference of more than a half a million voters (507, 258) people who voted in the 2016 presidential election did not vote in the 2017 National Assembly election. Importance of voting in National Assembly elections Polling officers vetting voters in the 2018 Local Gov't at a polling station in Farato (Photo: Mustapha Ceesay) Essa Njie, political science lecturer, University of the Gambia said one of the roles of the national assembly is to make law, while the executive implements and the judiciary interprets those laws. ‘”Not only is parliament responsible for law making but they are also responsible for budget allocation,” he said. Njie stressed the importance of the National Assembly highlighting its duties such as approval of the budgets of institutions and the ratifications of treaties, among others. “Gambians must realize that we need a competent national assembly that will ensure that the refunds that this government had promised in 2016 are brought back to life, making sure that there is a new constitution in place, making sure that there are new electoral laws in place,” he stated. Essa urged people to take the NA elections seriously as the presidential elections in order to improve their lives and livelihoods. “People must realize that in order to improve their lives and livelihood, in order to ensure that critical of development such as health , education ,agriculture and all those very important areas that are necessary to be improved, in order to ensure that their lives and livelihood are improve, it’s only through having an effective an efficient parliament,” he noted. The university lecturer called on Gambians to participate in the democratic process that comes once every five years; citing the power of the parliamentarians. “Elections are moments when the constitution gives us the power to determine or elect our political leaders. So we should not joke with it. Parliamentarians have powers to impeach a president, if he or she is behaving otherwise,” he urged. The low voter turnout at parliamentary elections is due to the less significance that many voters, mainly none-elites rated the parliamentary elections as opposed to presidential elections, owing to their level of civic awareness. National Council for Civic Education In the Gambia, National Council for Civic Education (NCCE) is the legal body responsible for educating the public. The institution is expected to inform the private citizens their rights and constitution responsibilities in which voting is part of. Its role to enlighten the electorates on the importance of voting in parliamentary elections could increase the voter turnout in the 9th April election. Asumana Ceesay, senior programme officer, NCCE said NA elections are equally important as the presidential elections in the lives of the citizens. He said the government is divided into three arms, and of them is the legislature whose election is as important as the presidential elections. “But the majority of people don’t know the importance of parliamentary elections. It’s even circulating on social media that they have already voted in the presidential election; there's no need for them to vote in the NA elections,” he said. Given the status quo, there is a need to create awareness on the importance of NA elections, ahead of the April 9 election. Mr. Ceesay highlighted that NCCE is encouraging all Gambians to go out and select their people genuinely parliamentarian in the April 9 elections, so they can be their representative in the National Assembly. He says the national assembly members will be there for the best interest of the public, they are there to represent their constituency and to represent the welfare of their people. ‘’ Recently we have started since the IEC has released the calendar of the National Assembly election. We just came from Basse. On the 22nd February 2022, we had 11 days of community sensitization in Basse,” he said. The NCCE senior programme officer observed that not everyone has access to television or radio where electoral messages are broadcast; that’s why NCCE deemed it necessary to have face to face and radio sensitization sessions on the importance of parliamentary elections on the lives of the people. “Voting is a constitutional right, the NCCE will continue to do its work by educating the public on their rights and responsibility,” he assured of his institution’s effort. History of National Assembly Elections in The Gambia In The Gambia, National Assembly elections began 75 years ago, (the colonial era), and 18 years before independence, according to records. Hassoum Ceesay, historian and Director General, National Centre for Arts & Culture (NCAC) said the first type of elections the Gambia had was the legislative elections in 1947. He recalled that Gambians first voted their representatives in parliament in 1947 and continued until 1972. “So legislative elections are very important and Gambians are used to electing their own parliamentary representatives since 1947,” he acknowledged. “But from the statistics in the second Republic, meaning from 1997, the presidential election turnout is always higher than that of the legislative elections.” According to research, in 1970 after a referendum, the Gambia became a Republic and a new Constitution (the 1970 Constitution) was adopted. The name of the legislature was changed from the House of Representative to Parliament. At that time, it comprised only thirty-two elected members, four head chiefs, the Attorney General and three nominated members. With the emergence of the 1997 Constitution, the Assembly now comprised fifty-three members and five nominated members. The Speaker and the Deputy-speaker are elected from the five members nominated by the president. Section 87 of the 1997 Constitution made it a requirement for the establishment of a National Assembly, which shall come into existence following a general election four months after the date of election of president.