The country has a unique and traditional style of voting, but plans to substitute this has generated frenzied disputes, writes Alagie Manneh.
A loud and contentious debate has been raging since the Independent Electoral Commission floated the idea that the time is now for The Gambia to drop its archaic system of voting using marbles, and join the rest of the world to embrace the paper ballot system of voting. The IEC intends to introduce the new format in the upcoming presidential elections slated for December next year.
The marble system was first introduced in The Gambia in the 1960s, at a time when illiteracy rates were exponentially high.
Between 2000 and 2015, adult literacy rate in The Gambia grew substantially from 36.8 to 50.8 percent, rising at an increasing annual rate that reached a maximum of 21.04 percent in 2015. It is even higher now.
The IEC said using marbles has now become a “monumental logistical nightmare”, citing the proliferation of political parties in the country.
Currently, The Gambia’s political parties number 16 and counting and, according to the IEC, this could mean that 16 or more presidential candidates could have their names in the ballot, which means using the current marble system, 16 ballot boxes or more will have to be placed at each of the country’s 1,442 polling stations.
“The headache we have now is that in the past, there have been only three or four presidential contestants but now we have 16 political parties and we expecting as well, some independent candidates. So, there is a possibility of about 20 candidates for the 2021 presidential election,” IEC chairman, Alieu Momarr Njai said.
Indeed, The Gambia remains the only country in the world that uses the marble system of voting.
The IEC said it has consensus among stakeholders to introduce the new paper ballot format. Once the drafters at the Ministry of Justice are ready, the 2020 Election Bill, which contains the new format of voting, will be tabled at the National Assembly.
Critics of the system, and there are many of them, said the country is not ready for the shift, citing primarily the literacy level in the country, and the susceptibility of the paper ballot to manipulation.
IEC in face of coruscating review
Defending his commission’s plans, the IEC chairman said Gambians are not the “dullest in the world”.
“We have no choice [but to introduce this system],” Chairman Njai, reiterated.
“Can you imagine producing more than 14,000 ballot drums which must be painted, symbols marked in different party colours and transported? You will need almost 200 trucks, whereas with the ballot paper, we can have one truck do the whole exercise.
“Gambians are not dull people and most part of the world are using the paper ballot. Except the blind, there is no Gambian here of 18 years and above who has a voter’s card who cannot recognise the photo of his or her candidate, party symbol or colour,” the chairman submitted.
According to him, the focus should not be on whether the electorate has been sensitised or not. “What is clear is the whole world and even our neighbours Guinea Bissau, Guinea and Senegal are all using paper ballots. I see nothing that should stop us from using paper ballot,” he added.
Defending the integrity of the paper ballot system, the 83-year-old chairman and former Gambia Scout commissioner, said the new system is not open to fraud as some would have us believe.
“No one can rig elections in this country especially with the spot-counting. That is not possible. Our system is very good and transparent. We give all political parties the list of voters in every polling station. That makes it impossible to rig the elections.”
‘Don’t fix if it isn’t broken’
Opinion is highly divided on the issue. While many Gambians feel this may not be the right course of action, others accepted it is about time the country transitions.
Abubacarr Bojang, 49, is a semi-literate who knows only the marble system of voting. He is worried now, that substituting the “cultural way of things” could spell trouble across the political spectrum.
“The old women, they don’t know A from B. How do you expect them to vote?” he asked. “What IEC wants to do now, it should not. We cannot introduce this in 2021. This is IEC trying to impose on us but they should know that they cannot force us to do anything,” he said.
Without elaborating, he said the IEC’s intention is to help former Argos security guard and now Gambian president, Adama Barrow, sweep the polls. “They are not being honest to us. But I assure, that’s their intention.”
Twenty-one-year-old Nyima Bah, a third-year journalism student of the University of The Gambia, eligible now to vote in the 2021 elections, said she has no idea how paper ballot system works.
“I can’t say much on [the issue] because I don’t even know what it’s all about. I have never voted before. I will be voting next year but I don’t know anything about the election, or the voting process, talk less of the paper ballot they like to introduce,” Nyima said.
Many other Gambians who spoke to me, including Saderr Cham, a lay-out editor of a newspaper in The Gambia, expressed reservations about the planned paper ballot.
“We don’t understand it [the paper ballot]. We just don’t,” Mr Cham, 30,” said.
“If it is not broken, why try to fix it?” one proponent of the marble, wrote.
The marble system is more favourable to the country where a majority of the voters cannot read and write and therefore, it would not be easy for them to use the paper ballot, he added.
‘A license for fraud’
Leader of Alliance for Patriotic Re-orientation and Construction – the former ruling party of exiled leader Yahya Jammeh – Fabakary Tombong Jatta, was blunt in his assessment of the paper ballot system. “There is nothing behind it but fraud,” Tombong, a veteran politician and former majority leader of The Gambia’s National Assembly, said.
The spokesperson of his party, Dodou Jah, summed it up: “I don’t trust that company [in Europe that the IEC said will be doing the printing of the paper ballots]. Also, the time frame given by the electoral commission for the introduction of the ballot paper is short. You cannot introduce the ballot paper when people don’t understand how it is used.
“Questions like who is going to be responsible for the printing and where will the ballots be printed, at home or abroad? And will the paper ballots have serial numbers? What happens when voters make errors and need a fresh ballot paper?” Mr Jah asked.
There are lots of areas to be covered to ensure the paper ballot is trustworthy, he said, adding, “…unless the electoral commission provides tangible answers to these questions, they cannot jump up and bring in the paper ballot”.
The peace and security of the country, Mr Jah argued, “is more important to the APRC than IEC and its work”.
The Gambia Democratic Congress which holds four seats of the 53-directly elected members of the National Assembly, was undecided on the issue, but said it will always defend “certain aspects” of the electoral process, be it marble or paper ballot.
“One of those is the on-spot counting,” Ahmadou Kah, its spokesperson, explained.
“GDC will not be supporting for that to change. We know it’s [the paper ballot] a very sensitive issue, that’s why there should be zero chances for mistakes. The truth is, the level of trust Gambians have in marbles, is unquestionable.”
Another case put forward by advocates of the marble is the probable struggle of uneducated voters identifying their candidates on the ballot paper.
Sanna Jawara, a member of the unicameral National Assembly of The Gambia, has always been speaking out, publicly and loudly, against the IECs plans.
However, he told me in an interview: “I visited the IEC chairman and his assistant, and we discussed the issue. I must say, they are totally convinced it is the right course and almost succeeded in convincing me. They showed me how transparent this process can be. I told them I will go back and try to convince my people. However, this should not mean to say I have switched my position on the issue.”
What did political experts say?
Sait Matty Jaw, the executive director of the Centre for Research and Policy Development, who also doubles as a political science lecturer at the University of The Gambia, articulated that the hostility that greeted news of IEC’s proposed plans, showed the country remained accustomed to marble.
However, the political scientist quipped that the country may need to look at what will improve the credibility of the electoral process.
“The marble, from the cultural element, is only known to The Gambia and has been here since the 1960s, when the population was barely 300,000, but now we are talking about two million people,” Mr Jaw said.
He said he understood the IEC’s “genuine point”, and advised its detractors.
“For those that are saying this is a literacy level issue, that’s an excuse. Are you telling me Gambians would not be able to identify a picture? Can they not recognise peoples face? Literacy can never be an issue. The only thing that would change is just the paper, instead of having 15 or 20 barrels, maybe one paper that has all these different pictures of potential candidates.”
Like a lot of other Gambians, Mr Jaw, too, has reservations about the planned idea to switch the marble for paper, and was unequivocal: “For me, one of the limitations of the paper ballot, is the time that it will take to count the ballot because first you have to reconcile the ballots, and then you have to look at the invalid ballots and stuff. So, that takes time.”
The young and respected analyst submitted that every electoral process has “room for manipulation,” and urged that rigidity gives way to flexibility to find commonality.
“Whether we call it [our liking for marbles] nostalgia, countries move and our country needs to move but, that move must be acceptable to the public,” Mr Jaw philosophically stated.
Whether or not The Gambia moves by adopting paper ballot, whatever it decides, one thing remains universally clear: many paper ballot voting systems in use today fail to address several threats.
“Even in the realm of paper ballots, technological changes threaten some of the counter measures that have traditionally proven to be effective,” a journal on election, peace and conflict resolution said.
Alagie Manneh is a multiple award-winning sub-editor, columnist and senior journalist at The Standard. This article was originally written for Chery Africa magazine.
