By Tabora Bojang
The Independent Electoral Commission revealed yesterday that 24,058 persons are found to have registered more than once in the just-concluded voter registration exercise. IEC Chairman Joseph Colley said some of the culprits registered twice, while others did so up to five times.
Mr Colley warned that double or multiple registration is a criminal offence under the election law and those found wanting may face punitive actions including prosecution and banning from voting.
According to Mr Colley, double registration attracts a fine of D500,000, a two years imprisonment or 10 year-ban from participating in elections. “In six weeks, we recorded 24,000 double registrations, almost the voter size of the whole Banjul. It shows something is wrong somewhere. And it is not our fault. We [IEC] did massive voter education, went face-to-face to sensitise people and gave them ample information but they decided to do what they wanted to do. So we will have to taste the waters by going to the court and see what will happen,” Colley said at the IEC monthly stakeholders forum yesterday.
He recalled that in the 2011 elections, the commission detected between 3,000 and 4,000 double registrations but parties asked for an amnesty and it was granted by the commission. He however stated that such an arrangement may be difficult this time round as the number of double registrations is unprecedented.
Some party and civil society representatives at the event, called on the IEC to find ways to amicably resolve the matter of double registration warning that disenfranchising such a huge number may not be the best route to deal with it.
Chairman Colley was however non-committal, saying granting amnesty to the culprits would require a broader stakeholder engagement. He said until such a decision is made, the commission remains resolute to apply the law in full.
Asked what led to this double or multiple registrations, Colley said: “Maybe you ask the people who did it. Because we did our best,” he said.
Registered voters
According to the chairman, a total of 212,095 individuals have been registered by the IEC during the supplementary voter registration which took place from 8th April to 21st May, 2026. On gender demography, he disclosed that a total of 115,504 females were registered while 96,581 were male.
The IEC chairman also informed stakeholders that the provisional list of voters will be published on 7th July with appeals and objections to be open until 24th July.
Sanitising the register
Mr Colley further acknowledged that the electoral register “is bloated” and needed to be sanitised which will be done after the adjudication of on-going cases and the conclusion of the revising courts.
He explained that once the voter list is published and the revising court is concluded, the final registration for 2026 will be added to that of 2021.
He reassured stakeholders of the commission’s resolve to deliver free, fair, transparent and inclusive elections.
Revising courts
The chairman also disclosed that the revising courts will sit from 28th July to 27th September. The revising court will commence 14 days after the publication of the provisional voter list. “After 14 days, if we don’t have any objections and appeal, there would not be any need for us to establish a revising court,” Chairman Colley said.
The court will take 60 days and will be set up in all administrative regions where appeals and objections are made.
AI generated voter card intercepted
According to the chairman, the commission acted on one case involving an individual who presented an AI generated voter card seeking a renewal. The incident occured in Kanifing on 16th May and is now before the court.
“He insisted that he was a Gambian who registered and wanted to do a replacement. With the help of our database supervisor, we could not find his name in the system and we invited him to the office the next day and we were able to discover the card he presented was AI generated,” IEC vice chairman Cherno Jallow explained.
