The Minister of Justice Dawda Jallow on Tuesday said the government of The Gambia has no intention or plans to change any constituency boundaries for the forthcoming presidential election as widely misunderstood. He added the current 53 electoral constituencies will remain untouched.

The electoral bill which was tabled before the National Assembly for its first reading reportedly indicated a new proposal to demarcate and annul several constituencies.

  It enunciates that Serekunda West, Bundung, Jeshwang, Latrikunda, Kombo East and Kombo South shall be demarcated into two constituencies while Old Yundum, Sannementereng and Busumbala will constitute a single constituency under Kombo North and the Tumana constituency to be trashed.

Speaking to reporters at the National Assembly yesterday, the minister explained in details that the bill tabled in the parliament was in fact a wrong version

“We have realised that a particular staff that was working on the bill lifted the old schedule from the old bill and attached it to the new bill without consulting the IEC to obtain the most updated schedule. There is no decision on the side of government to alter any constituency boundary.  That decision has never been taken. The government has no interest in changing the constituency boundary. In fact, that is not the mandate of the government,” the  justice minister said.

“It is the constituency boundary commission or the IEC that can change the boundaries. It is an error and humans do make errors and the error has been rectified. The current 53 constituencies will remain,” He  clarified.

 

Fatoumatta Samateh