By Lamin Njie
The Gambia’s political future is about to witness a major transformation after the country’s new draft constitution revealed a massive shift to the country’s electoral law.
The new draft constitution of The Gambia which was released today says a candidate for election to the office of president can only be elected if the candidate has received more than half of all the votes ‘validly’ cast in the election. The pronouncement translates to 51% and it a sharp departure from the simply majority system The Gambia has known since independence.
The new draft constitution is also saying the president cannot hold office for more than two terms of “five years each, whether or not the terms are consecutive.”
The Barrow administration in 2018 tasked a commission to work on a new constitution for The Gambia, and after over one and a half years of work the commission has published the first draft of the document.
Cherno Jallow the chairman of the Constitutional Review Commission speaking at a news conference in Kotu today said the draft constitution comprises 20 Chapters with a total of 315 clauses. The current constitution of The Gambia has 17 chapters.
The CRC top official said: “We took note of their wishes and carried out research into comparable jurisdictions.
“We have come to the conclusion that while a leaner Constitution may be desirable, it ought not to be the yard stick by which we measure the strength and effectiveness of the Constitution.
“We have taken into account the fact that we have a young democracy with not so strong institutions – one of the things we have attempted to rectify in the draft Constitution – and the need to ensure clarity.”
