Claim: A Facebook page, Recruitment Portal, claimed that The Gambia’s Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) is currently recruiting 5,750 election officials for the Dec. 5, 2026 presidential election.
Verdict: False. The IEC recruited election officials through its official channels, but that process has closed, and it has already held interviews. The link in the post leads to an unofficial website, not the Commission’s domain (iec.gm), and asks applicants for personal details.
Full Text
A Facebook page, Recruitment Portal, posted an application link claiming the IEC is currently recruiting 5,750 people as part of its 2026 recruitment exercise.
The post directs interested applicants to a link, https://tinyurl.com/iec-gm-vacancies, which redirects to a website hosted on Blogspot at iec-gm-vacancies.blogspot.com.
At the time of the publication, the post had attracted 49 reactions, eight comments and one share.
The advertisement appears to target job seekers by presenting the purported recruitment exercise as an opportunity to work with the electoral body ahead of the Dec. 5, 2026 presidential election.
Verification
To verify the claims, DUBAWA contacted the IEC’s Director of Communications, Pa Makan Khan, via WhatsApp. He dismissed the advertisement, stating: “This is false! IEC applications have been closed, and individuals were interviewed last week. There is no recruiting currently.”
Screenshot of the chat.
We also reviewed the IEC’s official communications on recruiting election officials for the December 2026 presidential election.
On Oct. 16, 2026, the Commission published an announcement titled “IEC Announces Shortlisting and Interview Dates for December 2026 Presidential Election Officials.” The announcement stated that, after receiving applications from individuals interested in serving as election officials, the Commission designated Oct. 17 to 26 for shortlisting, interviews, and selection.
This official timeline is consistent with the Commission’s Director of Communications’ confirmation that applications had closed and interviews had already taken place. This contradicts the Facebook post’s suggestion that the IEC was still accepting applications.
We further examined the website linked to the advertisement.
The website is hosted on Blogspot, rather than the IEC’s official domain, iec.gm. The landing page contains generic recruitment language, including the phrases “Get Started Today” and “Easy Way to Get your Dream Jobs Now!”
It also features generic promotional text referring to “our company” without clearly identifying the IEC as the organisation operating the website.
More importantly, the website provides an application form that requests visitors’ first name, middle name, last name, phone number, and email address. Applicants are then prompted to click a “Next Page” button to proceed.
The website’s footer displays the IEC’s email address, admin@iec.gm, alongside telephone and fax numbers associated with the Commission. However, the presence of official contact details on an unofficial website does not establish that the IEC created, authorised or operates the platform.
Screenshot of landing page.
The form’s request for personal and contact information raises concerns about collecting applicants’ data under the guise of an official recruitment exercise.
DUBAWA further scanned the link using VirusTotal. Three security vendors, namely Chong Lua Dao, SafeToOpen, and SOCRadar, flagged the URL as malicious or potentially associated with phishing.
The website also uses a Blogspot subdomain rather than an independently verified official domain belonging to the organisation purportedly conducting the recruitment.
Screenshot of results from VirusTotal
We also found an earlier warning issued by the IEC, published on Oct. 17, 2025, concerning a separate fake recruitment advertisement. In the notice, the Commission cautioned the public against unauthorised recruitment announcements and unofficial online application forms. It advised the public to rely on its official website, verified social media platforms and national media for authentic recruitment announcements.
Importantly, we found no official IEC announcement supporting the figure of 5,750 vacancies advertised in the Facebook post.
Conclusion
The claim is false. IEC’s Director of Communications told DUBAWA that applications have closed and interviews have been held, which matches the Commission’s notice scheduling interviews for Oct. 17 to 26, 2026.