December 5 is the day Gambians and Gambians alone will decide who governs The Gambia for the next five years.
So if you are not a Gambian citizen, do not vote, campaign, mobilise or pretend this election belongs to you. It does not.
Feeling Gambian is not being Gambian and living here is not citizenship. Having a voter’s card you should not have does not make you a voter. The Constitution made it clear that voting is a right of Gambian citizens. It is not a reward for long residence, not a gift for loyalty to a party, and not a favour to be handed out by politicians desperate for numbers.
When a non-Gambian votes, a Gambian is silenced and every illegal vote cancels a legal one, steals the voice of a market woman in Bakoteh, a fisherman in Tujereng, a farmer in Basse, a student in Banjul who waited in line to exercise his/her birthright. And let us be honest about who benefits from this fraud. It is not the ordinary foreign resident who minds his business and respects our laws.
It is politicians who see foreigners as a shortcut to power. They register them, transport them, feed them on election day, and then abandon them the day after.
To those politicians we say shame on you. You are not building a party but a crime scene. On December 5, the security services must be present, be impartial and firm to ensure that no Gambian should be intimidated at a polling station. But no one who is not entitled to vote should be allowed to vote.
And to our brothers and sisters from Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Sierra Leone and elsewhere who live peacefully among us: We respect you. We welcome you. The Gambia is your home away from home. Our markets, our mosques, our churches, our schools are open to you.
But on December 5, respect us enough to stay home. Do not allow any politician to use you to steal our future. Do not risk arrest, deportation, and shame for a vote that is not yours.
This election is already tense and the country does not need post-election violence triggered by credible reports that foreigners decided it.
We have seen in other countries what happens when losers can point to foreign voters and say: “This election was stolen.”
Do not give them that excuse. Gambians must decide for Gambians. That is sovereignty. That is dignity. That is democracy. If you are not Gambian, even if you are registered, the most patriotic thing you can do for The Gambia on December 5 is to stay out.
Let Gambians vote. Let Gambians decide. Let Gambians live with the consequences of their own choice.
