Banjul Mayor raises alarm over voter exclusion risk, urges urgent electoral remedy

Mayor Rohey Malick-Lowe has raised alarm over what she describes as a growing risk of voter exclusion in Banjul after the Independent Electoral Commission confirmed that no voter attestation will be issued for residents of the capital.

In a public statement, the mayor said the development could leave many otherwise eligible residents unable to participate in future elections, particularly those who do not possess formal identification and who previously relied on local attestation as a pathway to register and vote.

A Longstanding Practice Now Closed

For decades, Banjul residents without standard documentation were able to access voter attestation through the Mayor’s Office. This, according to the mayor, is a practice rooted in the city’s distinct administrative structure.

Unlike many communities across The Gambia, Banjul does not operate under the same traditional system of alkalos and seyfos, local authorities who in other areas often play a role in helping residents confirm identity and residency.

That historical gap made the Mayor’s Office a practical civic bridge for many residents.

But according to the mayor, a High Court ruling issued on July 13, 2021 clarified that the office no longer has the legal authority to issue such attestations. While she said the ruling must be respected, she argued that the absence of any replacement mechanism has created what she called a “serious and urgent challenge” for the city.

A Democratic Gap in the Capital

At the heart of the mayor’s concern is a simple but consequential question: how can eligible Banjul residents vote if the system no longer provides them a lawful way to prove eligibility?

Malick-Lowe warned that, without corrective action, some residents may be disenfranchised not because they are unqualified to vote, but because the administrative pathway that once existed for them has disappeared.

She framed the issue not as a partisan matter, but as one of fairness, equal access and democratic integrity.

“Democracy must be inclusive. Every citizen matters. And every voice deserves to be heard,” she said in the statement.

Call for National Action

The mayor is now calling on national authorities , including the IEC and the National Assembly of The Gambia, to urgently close the gap.

She proposed two possible remedies: broader access to national identification documents, or the creation of a lawful alternative attestation mechanism specifically tailored to Banjul’s administrative reality.

Her appeal comes at a politically sensitive moment, as electoral preparations continue and civic participation remains central to democratic trust in the country.

A Democratic Test

This issue presents an opportunity for Gambian institutions to strengthen public confidence by addressing an overlooked structural imbalance before it becomes a wider electoral controversy.

Rather than allowing legal clarity to produce civic exclusion, electoral experts say this may be the moment for institutional innovation — ensuring that the law is upheld while citizens are not unfairly shut out of the democratic process.

For Banjul, the challenge now is not only legal compliance, but democratic adaptation.

And for the nation, the question is whether electoral systems can be made sufficiently responsive to local realities without compromising integrity.

That answer may shape how fairly the capital is represented in the elections ahead.