By Tabora Bojang
NPP chieftain and an adviser to the president, Dou Sanno, has refuted allegations that the ruling party in cahoots with alkalolu and seyfolu has registered several thousand foreigners and helped them get voter’s cards.
Addressing supporters at his residence in Kitty Saturday, GDC leader Mamma Kandeh accused NPP of making coordinated efforts to register 3,343 foreign voters across several communities in the Kombos during the recently concluded supplementary registration exercise.
He explained that he intercepted this evidence in a WhatsApp conversation on the NPP Soninkara page where several members confessed how they registered foreign voters across a number registration centres.
He claimed that registrations were made at the following centres: Old Yundum 309 voter’s cards, New Yundum 234, Latriya 112, Jabang 354, Tawto 225, Bakoteh 156, Kanifing 324, Kanifing Layout 58, Pipeline 261, Jambur 212, Bakau New Town 126, Fajara Hotel 54, Fajara Sabena 71, Brusubi 45, Sukuta Junction-Ba 134, Farato 327, Busumbala 213, and Makumbaya 128 voters card making a total of 3,343 voter’s card.
“This is only the Kombos” Kandeh said. “I am calling on the IEC to take note of this fraud. I know it would be difficult for them to deny these foreigners because they used the alkalolu and the chiefs to stamp attestation for these people that allows the IEC to issue them a voters card,” he claimed.
The GDC leader also called on the electoral body to investigate the circumstances around a purported voter’s card that was widely circulating on social media.
He said in that image, the purported voter’s card was issued in 2025 and bears the signature of current IEC Chairman Joseph Colley. “It was issued in Sandu at around 6:45 PM and we all know IEC does not operate up to that time and besides there was no registration in 2025. So let the IEC come out and answer these questions,” he said.
Reaction
Reacting to the allegations, NPP’s Dodou Sanno told The Standard last evening: “These allegations are unsubstantiated and directly impugn the integrity of The Gambia’s electoral process and the institutions that administer it. If there is evidence of irregularities on the voter register, the appropriate forum is the revising courts established under our electoral laws. The NPP expects any political actor who has concerns about the register to test them through that legal process, not through unverified audios or public statements.”
Mr Sanno said statements questioning state institutions without evidence risk undermining public confidence in elections.
“The NPP has not attempted, nor will it attempt, to register any foreigner. Our commitment is to a clean, credible voter register administered by the IEC, free from partisan interference.
“We encourage all parties to raise concerns through the proper legal channels and to debate electoral issues on the basis of verified information, not speculation. It is unacceptable for a political leader to make such serious allegations based on an audio he has not even verified. We expect better political maturity from Mr Kandeh than resorting to cheap politics.”
He challenged Kandeh to go to the revising courts and formally challenge the voter register if he believes there are irregularities.
Sanno accused Kandeh of been fun of making “unfounded and unjustifiable” claims about the NPP registering foreigners.
“In 2021, he claimed that the NPP registered 250,000 foreigners but I think he must have been a fool not to challenge that in the revising courts then.”
