The United Democratic Party has called on The Gambia’s Independent Electoral Commission to release the complete dataset from the 2026 Supplementary Voter Registration exercise, citing an unresolved discrepancy involving approximately 14,000 voters.
Speaking at a party press conference on Monday, Lamin Manneh, the UDP’s Deputy Administrative Secretary for External Affairs, said access to the raw registration data was necessary to independently verify the figures ahead of the December 5, 2026, presidential election.
Manneh emphasised that the request was intended to promote electoral transparency and strengthen public confidence, rather than accuse the IEC of fraud or manipulation.
According to him, the commission informed political parties that 212,095 people had registered during the supplementary exercise. The IEC subsequently identified 24,334 cases of multiple registration involving 14,334 individuals, whose duplicate entries were expected to be removed from the final voter register.
However, the UDP said questions emerged after it compared the IEC’s public figures with the registration data supplied to political parties.
Manneh said the initial dataset provided on a flash drive contained slightly more than 179,000 voter records—about 32,000 fewer than the total publicly announced by the commission.
Following concerns raised by political parties, the IEC reportedly provided an additional dataset containing 3,713 voters who had been omitted from the original files. This brought the total number of records available to the UDP to approximately 183,000.
Even after accounting for the 14,334 people identified as multiple registrants, Manneh said the party was still unable to reconcile a remaining difference of roughly 14,000 voters.
“The question to the IEC was: Can you explain to us where these 14,000 have gone? What is the justification?” he said.
The UDP is requesting access to the full dataset of 212,095 registrants before any duplicate entries are removed. It is also seeking the list of the 14,334 individuals identified as multiple registrants and the additional 3,713 voter records provided after the initial dataset was released.
Manneh said the party had developed an information technology platform capable of analysing electoral data and wanted the opportunity to independently examine the figures.
“We are not suspecting them of fraud,” he said. “We just want to be able to verify for ourselves so that when we leave, we can tell everybody that the IEC has done the job they are supposed to do and move on from there.”
The UDP also raised concerns about the period allocated for objections to names appearing on the provisional voter register. Manneh argued that the petition period should begin the day after the register is officially published, ensuring that political parties and members of the public are given sufficient time to review it.
He described the UDP’s engagement with the commission as an attempt to strengthen, rather than undermine, confidence in the electoral process.
Manneh urged party supporters and other stakeholders to approach the matter responsibly, stressing that the objective was to ensure accountability and public confidence in the integrity of the voter registration process ahead of the December election.
