IEC Chairman Says Presidential Candidates May Have Just 17-18 Days to Campaign

By Fatou Sillah

The chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission, Joseph Colley, has said candidates in The Gambia’s 2026 presidential election may have only 17 to 18 days to campaign, a compressed timetable that could pose significant logistical challenges for political parties and election officials.

Speaking in an interview with West Coast Radio, Mr. Colley said the length of the campaign period would depend on the final electoral timetable, but acknowledged that coordinating nationwide campaign activities within such a narrow window could prove difficult, particularly if a large number of candidates contest the election.

“If we have five or six candidates crisscrossing The Gambia in 17 days, or even 10 candidates, and you know The Gambia, you have the South Bank and North Bank, especially when all of them are coming from maybe the West Coast or North Bank, coming to the Greater Banjul Area, so how are we going to manage with the crisscrossing?” he said.

Presidential candidates traditionally travel extensively during the official campaign period, holding rallies and meetings across the country. Mr. Colley said the prospect of several candidates moving between the same regions over a relatively short period would require careful coordination.

The commission, he said, has begun developing an operational plan to manage the election within the available time frame. That includes preparing a nomination schedule, which he said would be made public.

The IEC is also moving ahead with preparations to procure essential election materials, including indelible ink and security seals.

“We already have an operational plan; we have a nomination schedule that will be made public,” Mr. Colley said. “Right now we are about to tender for the procurement of election materials, the indelible ink, seals, red seals, and white seals. Those are the ones we need to procure.”

Mr. Colley said the commission was working with stakeholders and relevant institutions to address potential logistical and legal challenges before the election period begins.

The preparations, he said, are intended to ensure that the compressed campaign timetable does not interfere with the orderly conduct of the presidential election.