A Finding That Has Not Yet Become a Verdict
What does it take to get onto a presidential ballot in The Gambia this year? For Talib Ahmed Bensouda, the leader of the UNITE party and the candidate of Coalition 2026, the answer on Saturday was practical and unfinished. He arrived at the Independent Electoral Commission headquarters at 11 a.m., half an hour before the nomination deadline, with party officials and supporters, and handed over the 16 credentials required of a candidate. The 5 December election is now less than a month away. Whether his name will appear on the ballot is not, even after that filing, a settled matter.
His brother and lawyer, Aziz Bensouda, spoke after the submission. “We are comfortable, and we are more than hopeful. The law is very clear,” he said. Talib Bensouda himself told journalists that the day was a proud moment and that there was no legal basis for keeping him out of the race. “Today is a proud moment when I submit my nomination papers as a candidate for the President of the Republic of The Gambia. As we all know, this country was built on the foundations of peace, progress, and prosperity. And justice is the glue for these principles,” he said. He argued that any attempt to disqualify him without a lawful basis would undermine the democratic principles on which the country was founded. He said he expected the commission to process his nomination according to the law.
A White Paper, a Constitution and an Appeal
The doubt hanging over the filing comes from the Local Government Commission of Inquiry, which examined the administration and finances of local councils, and from the government’s White Paper on that commission’s work. The government accepted adverse findings against Bensouda from his time as mayor of Kanifing Municipal Council and endorsed recommendations for further investigations, a forensic audit and other measures. The findings raised concerns over expenditure authorizations, recruitment and procurement at the council. The White Paper recommended his removal as mayor.
Those findings matter because of Section 62(3)(c) of the 1997 Constitution. It disqualifies a person from running for president if, while holding public office, they have been found liable for misconduct, negligence, corruption or improper behavior by a commission or committee of inquiry established by law. That is a constitutional bar, not a criminal conviction. It is also the provision on which any attempt to keep Bensouda off the ballot would have to rest.
Bensouda has not accepted the finding. He filed a notice of appeal at the Court of Appeal on 24 June 2026, contesting a finding communicated to him on 12 May. He argues that the commission failed to identify the specific expenditure involved, failed to establish the legal basis for its conclusion and failed to give adequate reasons. The appeal is still before the court.
What the President Would Not Decide
On 5 November, President Adama Barrow answered concerns raised by UNITE in a letter. He said the White Paper was neither a court judgment nor a determination of anyone’s eligibility to contest the presidency. The validity, scope and effect of the adverse finding, he wrote, were matters for the Court of Appeal. Deciding whether a candidate is qualified, he added, falls to the Independent Electoral Commission, subject to the courts. Barrow is himself running for a third term.
UNITE has been less restrained. The party has called the allegations “a last-minute political maneuver intended to confuse the public…ahead of nominations” and said the president’s National People’s Party “is desperate and afraid because they will lose this election.” The government has not presented the White Paper as a disqualification order. It has also not withdrawn the findings that created the constitutional question.
A Resignation Timed to the Rules
Bensouda announced that he was resigning as mayor with effect from 6 November, after eight years and five months in the post. UNITE said the resignation was meant to satisfy the constitutional requirements for running for president. During Saturday’s nomination proceedings, the electoral commission said it had a response on his departure from the mayoralty, but it had not been read out when the filing was reported. The commission’s decision on the nomination is now awaited.
The sequence is tidy and not accidental: resign, file, wait. It is also incomplete. Leaving the mayor’s office may answer one constitutional requirement. It does not by itself erase a commission finding that, if it stands, could answer another.
Waste Collection, Blackouts and a 66-Point Agenda
Bensouda’s popularity was built in Kanifing, where he became known for regular waste collection. His standing has grown as the country has faced prolonged blackouts, which have led to protests and calls for Barrow to step down. He is not the only opposition figure in the field. Ousainou Darboe of the United Democratic Party, who ran against Barrow in 2021, has also said he will stand. The official list of nominees has not yet been published.
After filing, Bensouda turned to the campaign he wants to run. He said tackling poverty would sit at the center of his administration and that Coalition 2026 was offering a 66-point policy agenda to transform the economy, strengthen governance and improve living standards, to end poverty within a decade. Asked about the recommendations of the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission, he pledged to separate the Office of the Attorney General from the Ministry of Justice so the attorney general would not be a political appointee and could pursue justice, including implementing those recommendations, without political interference.
Who Gets to Stand, and Who Decides
The structural question in this campaign is older than Bensouda’s nomination papers. It is whether a sitting president’s government can, through a commission of inquiry and a White Paper, create a constitutional obstacle for a rival, and then step back and say that the decision belongs to someone else. Barrow is right that eligibility is for the electoral commission and the courts, not for a president who is also on the ballot. That division of labor only works if those institutions can decide freely, and if a pending appeal is given its proper weight rather than treated as a technicality. Gambians will vote on 5 December. The more immediate vote is the quieter one inside the commission and the Court of Appeal: whether the most prominent new challenger is allowed onto the paper at all.
