Read Day 1 of the live fact-check of the 2021 Gambian Election here
- Claim: A Twitter user, terry manners (@TelBabe), says The Gambian voters who have smartphones voted under the ‘Marble’ app, while others who do not, cast their vote with marbles in yesterday’s election.
Manners’ bio indicates he is a former Editor of Express in Scotland, Assistant Editor London; Editor of Western Daily Press and is the author of seven books.
False
Verification: According to the IEC, all eligible voters voted with marbles/tokens. This is different from the ‘Marble’ app. The app is a digital tool developed by the election observer group, Gambia Participates, to “ease access to credible election information.”
“You cannot vote with the Marble app. It is not even provided for,” Annetta Mahoney, Programme Officer at Gambia Participates told Dubawa.
According to Gambia Participates, “The Marble mobile application, named for the marble stone used in elections in The Gambia since independence in 1965, is a digital tool created in 2018 to provide up-to-date, timely and accurate election information to [voters] to promote election transparency and accountability. The application is intended to be used to inform and educate people on elections in general.”
- Claim: A picture in circulation says that the candidates of Independent, GDC, and UDP were in a meeting at the residence of Lawyer Darboe to present joint-party evidence of electoral fraud presented by the IEC in favour of Adama Barrow of the NPP. It further stated that Hon. Halifa Sallah of the PDOIS and Abdoulie Jammeh of the NUP are also on their way to Mr. Darboe’s house to mount a joint challenge of what they call the most fraudulent election.
Partly true
Verification: It is true that the candidates of the Independent Essa Mbye Faal, GDC Mama Kandeh, and UDP Ousainou Darboe, held a press conference to express their displeasure with the election results. What is not true is that Hon. Halifa Sallah and Abdoulie Jammeh were on their way to the meeting. Dubawa put a call through to Hon. Halifa, who says his party is an organised political party, and if they are not satisfied with the election results, they will organise their own press conference. He also added that he has not been seen on TV attending any press conference and expressed his utmost displeasure at the accusations.
- Claim: A viral video purportedly shows PDOIS candidate, Halifa Sallah, accepting the results so far declared by the IEC.
“Counting was done on the spot and all sides knew the results before the IEC. So if there are technicalities, they are just technicalities but the fact is already known. We are confident that those facts are incontestable and it is incontrovertible as far as we are concerned that the president-elect, Barrow, won,”
Mr Sallah said in the video.
False
Verification: Dubawa found the video on YouTube through a Yandex search. We found one posted in 2017 by R Dee with the caption “Halifa Sallah on yaya jammeh’s speak”.
PDOIS has debunked the claim. The party said the video is from 2016 and is unrelated to this year’s election.
Furthermore, Jaha Dukureh, the co-chair of the Youth Interparty Committee of the PDOIS says the video is dated.
“The video is from the 2016 presidential election. Halifa Sallah did not publish any statement or video pertaining to the current occurrence,” she said.
- Claim: A Facebook post by What’s On Gambia says The CSO Coalition on Election Situation Room declared the election was free, fair and transparent. The chairman of the group is quoted to have said: “We had over 700 observers; we did not receive any report of malpractices.”
Verdict: Partly True
Verification: Yes, it is true that the CSO Coalition on Election (CCE) declared the election free, fair and transparent. This was disclosed at a press conference organized by the CSO Coalition on Election at Coco Ocean Hotel.
It is however false that the CCE chairman said 700 observers were deployed by the group.
“The 700 observers are inaccurate. 150 from the CSO Coalition plus 26 from the National Human Rights Commission which makes it 176. The two were sharing reports,” Lamin Jahateh, Program Manager at the Gambia Press Union and an official at the Situation room told Dubawa.
