06 April 2017•Update: 06 April 2017
By Mustapha K Darboe
BANJUL, Gambia
In their first election since the fall of strongman Yahya Jammeh, Gambians have gone to polls on Thursday morning to elect their various National Assembly candidates.
Voting started at 8 a.m. (0800 GMT) this morning but the turnout was low as compared to country’s past presidential polls.
“The turnout for the presidential elections was much higher than this morning's parliamentary election… It is a slow start,” Omar Gitteh, an election official at country’s economic capital, Serrekunda, told Anadolu Agency.
There are nine political parties with a record 239 registered candidates campaigning for 48 seats, according to the country’s Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).
Five seats will be appointed by the president, totaling 53 spots in the small nation's parliament.
The small country of about 2 million people has 886,000 registered voters, IEC said.
The election presents first major political challenge to country’s new President Adama Barrow, who is seeking majority in the National Assembly to conduct host of legal and constitutional reforms.
Barrow leads a coalition of seven parties, contesting for dominance in the law-making body, against opposition Gambia Democratic Congress and former president’s Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction parties.
The elections is being monitored by dozens of observers from the African Union, European Union and officials of the regional economic bloc, ECOWAS.
Gambia has come under spotlight since its rocky political transition in December which triggered regional military intervention in the country following Jammeh’s refusal to cede power.
On Wednesday, the chairman of the country’s electoral commission, Alieu Momarr Njai, has told Anadolu Agency his institution will ensure the integrity of the polls are protected.
