National Assembly Member for Lower Saloum, Hon. Sainey Jawara, has openly challenged the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to declare President Adama Barrow the winner of the 2026 presidential election, despite the fact that Gambians are yet to cast their ballots.
Jawara made the provocative call during a joint general meeting of the Lower Saloum, Upper Saloum and Nianija constituencies in Kaur Wharf Town as part of President Barrow’s 2026 Meet the People’s Tour.
His remarks came as he defended controversial statements made by Lands Minister Hamat N.K. Bah at an NPP rally in Farafenni on 26 September, where Bah accused the opposition of targeting particular ethnic communities through objections to voter registrations.
Jawara said he stood by the substance of Bah’s remarks, claiming that the cases taken to court in connection with voter-registration objections involved Fulas and Wollofs.
“That all the cases they took to reverse court are Fulas and Wollofs,” Jawara said.
The Lower Saloum lawmaker questioned whether The Gambia belongs to any particular political party or ethnic group, warning against what he portrayed as attempts to turn political disagreements into ethnic divisions.
But his intervention itself plunged deeper into the ethnic dimension of the political debate.
Referring to his own Mandinka community, Jawara challenged the notion that The Gambia could be divided along ethnic lines.
“They want to tell me there are no Fulas, Wollofs, Jolas, etc. in this country?” he asked.
Jawara then alleged that insults circulating on social media were largely being made by Mandinkas, further dragging ethnicity into an already highly charged political environment.
His comments come at a time when ethnic identity, voter registration and political allegiance have become increasingly sensitive issues ahead of the December 2026 presidential election.
The lawmaker also took aim at young Gambians threatening to protest over the country’s persistent electricity problems, questioning whether roughly two months of power shortages justified demonstrations or a march towards State House.
Jawara argued that some communities had endured electricity shortages for decades without taking to the streets.
“Are those communities not Gambian?” he asked.
He warned opposition groups and political parties against using protests in a manner that could, in his view, push the country towards instability.
“We will not sit and watch a few individuals to set this country into conflict. It will not happen, and we will lead this country by force,” Jawara declared.
Rather than simply defending the government’s record on electricity, Jawara framed the issue as a potential threat to national stability, urging young people and his supporters to reject protests that he believes lack a clear agenda.
He ended by reaffirming his support for President Barrow and calling on the IEC to declare the incumbent victorious.
