Political scientist, University of Missouri St. Louis

Alieu Sanneh does not work, consult, own shares or obtain funds from any company or organization that will benefit from this article, and does not disclose any related affiliation other than academic appointments.

The President of The Gambia, Adamabaro, has been announced to have won the election held on December 4. Barrow received about 53% of the vote, while his closest competitor in the polls, Oussainou Darboe, received 28%.

This election is the first election since Barrow defeated Yahya Jammeh in 2016 and is largely regarded as a test of Gambia's democracy. Jame was forced to go into exile because he refused to accept his defeat in the vote. His 22 years of rule were damaged by human rights violations and suppression of opposition.

Jammeh's resignation opened up the country's political space, allowing the masses to participate. Citizens can freely join any political party of their choice without fear of arrest, detention and torture.

As the results of the 2021 general election came out, representatives of all opposition parties signed almost all the vote counts read to the Independent Election Commission.

However, Dubbo and two other candidates, Mama Kandeh and Essa Mbye Faal, stated that they would not accept the results because the counting time was longer than expected and there were unspecified problems in some polling stations.

Members of the Election Committee later confirmed that the delay in publishing the results was a precautionary measure to ensure that the ballot was fully reviewed before it was published.

Barrow’s victories were loud, mainly due to his message of reconciliation and the promotion of the unity of the country’s inter-ethnic and tribal relations.

For Darboe, Kandeh, and Faal, challenging the outcome may be a political strategy to motivate supporters. No one expects any error to be large enough to produce different results.

So far, the Gambia’s democratic system has lasted forever.

The country has a unique voting system that does not involve the use of paper ballots for voting. Instead, it uses marbles.

The opposition candidates who rejected the result did not indicate any problems with the voting process, especially related to the use of marbles.

Facts have proved that this form of voting is simple and difficult to cheat.

In 1965, when the Gambia gained independence for the first time due to the low population literacy rate at that time, the British introduced marble voting in the Gambia. The system has been in use.

At the ballot box, there is a metal cylinder with a hole on the top. These containers are arranged on the tables in the voting booths and painted with the candidates’ party colors and their photos for easy identification. Each voter throws a marble into a container representing the selected candidate.

The last tool used in this unique form of voting is the counting box. The marble is poured into a square tray with holes. At the end of the voting, the votes were counted on the spot.

The holes in the tray are evenly filled with marbles. Then count and record the total number of representatives of candidates and voters on the spot.

Counting votes on the spot ensures fairness and builds public confidence in the election process.

Candidates who questioned the results pointed out that there was a procedural problem with the Independent Electoral Commission’s delay in counting the votes. No evidence of fraud was provided to prove that the results were manipulated to benefit the incumbent.

As a standard rule for elections and to facilitate identification, the country is divided into regions called electoral districts, and each electoral district has several polling stations for voting. Each polling station is headed by a presiding officer representing the independent election committee.

Voters can only vote where they register to vote. On election day, the presiding officer has a list that can be cross-checked with the identities of voters in that location. Voters’ fingers are marked with liquid ink before they get marbles. These measures are taken to prevent individuals from voting twice.

The presidential election on December 4 is more like a competition between the current and candidate Barrow of the National People’s Party and his former Vice President of the United Democrats, Dubbo.

The electoral system in the Gambia is based on election after election. There is no runoff, and any party that can get the highest total number of votes, no matter how small the difference is, will be declared the winner.

When Dubbo began to express his presidential ambitions, the political "fraternity" between Barrow and Dubbo came to an abrupt end. As one of the founding members of the United Democratic Party, Dubbo has ran for public office many times in the past and lost to Jame.

In addition to these two people, there are some issues that are important to voters on December 4.

They include the economy, security, corruption, and the decline in health care service standards.

While some of these issues are assessments of the incumbent’s four-year leadership, there are also worrying increases in race and tribal politics that have never been seen in the country.

Although the use of marbles in elections may be considered an outdated form of voting, so far it has been a transparent and discouraged process of manipulation.

Despite its simplicity, this voting method has successfully ended the dictatorship in Gambia. This is clear evidence that the voting system is working. Jame may rule with fear and intimidation, but he also respects the voting process that ultimately led to his ouster.

Some people talk about using paper ballots that meet modern voting standards. But since what already exists is producing the expected results of free and fair elections, why use something more complicated?

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