Gambian parliamentary election, 2012
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
48 of 53 seats to the National Assembly 27 seats needed for a majority |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1A parliamentary election was held in the Gambia on 29 March 2012. The election was for 48 of 53 seats in the unicameral National Assembly, with five seats being appointed by the president.
In the past, President Yahya Jammeh has said that regions that do not vote for him would be isolated. This has helped him garner more votes.
Due to the over 50% illiteracy rate in the country, voters would drop glass marbles into coloured drums based on the candidate they chose. Upon the marble hitting the bottom of each drum, a bell would sound to prevent voter fraud through multiple voting.
Six opposition parties (United Democratic Party (UDP), People's Progressive Party, People's Democratic Organisation for Independence and Socialism, National Democratic Action Movement, Gambia Moral Congress, Gambia Party for Democracy and Progress, National Convention Party and the National Alliance for Democracy and Development) boycotted the election saying it was rigged in favour of the ruling Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRD) and after a request to postpone the election was rejected. The UDP's Ousainou Darboe said that the ruling party was "using government resources. They operate from the offices of the regional governors and from the offices of the various local authorities to operate." The grouping also called for ECOWAS to intervene. The grouping said that APR had "an abuse of incumbency [as] complete merger between party and state" allowed for the ruling party to use state resources such as the media for "political advantage." However, Hamat Bah's yet unrepresented National Reconciliation Party (NRP) decided to participate in the election. He made the decision on the premise that he could win back the seat lost after the founding of the National Alliance for Democracy and Development and was subsequently barred by a court ruling.
...
Wikipedia