By Mariama Marong
The Kanifing Revising Court has dismissed an objection challenging Ensa Jammeh’s registration as a voter in Kololi, ruling that the evidence presented failed to establish that he was not a Gambian citizen or otherwise qualified to remain on the voters’ register.
In a judgment delivered on 15 October 2026, Magistrate Isatou Jallow held that suspicion alone was not enough to justify removing a person’s name from the voters’ register without sufficient evidence to support the allegations.
The objection was filed by Amie Sankanu on 20 July 2026. She argued that Jammeh was not a Gambian citizen and should therefore not be allowed to register as a voter in Kololi, within the Serrekunda West Constituency. However, the court found that Sankanu had failed to establish the legal grounds for removing his name from the register.
Jammeh’s lawyer, H. Farage, urged the court to dismiss the objection, arguing that the allegations were not supported by sufficient evidence. Jammeh himself did not appear before the court or testify during the proceedings.
Testifying before the court, Sankanu said she was a registered voter residing in Kololi and had participated in the 2026 supplementary voter registration exercise as a polling agent. She told the court that she questioned Jammeh’s eligibility because she did not know him or recognise him as a member of the Kololi community, despite having lived in the area for about 15 years and served as a polling agent since 2016.
According to Sankanu, Jammeh was brought to the registration centre by an unnamed campaign manager of the National People’s Party (NPP) in a party vehicle.
She said the circumstances raised doubts in her mind about his citizenship, particularly because she believed he had not attended the registration centre independently.
Sankanu also told the court that Jammeh presented a birth certificate during registration and was issued a voter’s card after electoral officials accepted the document.
However, she questioned the validity of the birth certificate, describing it as an older version bearing a red stamp. She believed the document was no longer valid following the introduction of a newer version.
The court noted, however, that the Independent Electoral Commission’s agents had not rejected Jammeh’s registration application when he presented the birth certificate.
Defence counsel H. Farage told the court that he would focus on the legal sufficiency of the evidence presented by the objector.
He argued that Sankanu had failed to provide enough evidence to justify requiring his client to defend himself against the allegations.
Counsel also questioned the basis of the objection, arguing that Sankanu had acknowledged that Jammeh presented a birth certificate that was accepted during registration but relied largely on suspicion to challenge his citizenship. He urged the court to dismiss the objection. Counsel for Sankanu was absent and did not respond to the defence submissions.
In her judgment, Magistrate Jallow examined the relevant provisions of the Elections Act, 2025, particularly Section 13, which sets out the requirements for voter registration.
Under Section 13(1), a person is entitled to have their name entered on the voters’ register for a constituency if they are a Gambian citizen, have attained or will attain the age of 18 by the next election, and are resident or were born in that constituency.
Section 13(2) provides that the Independent Electoral Commission may register a person upon the production of any one of the prescribed documents. These include a birth certificate, Gambian passport, National Identity Card or an attestation from an Alkalo or Seyto certifying that the person is Gambian.
The magistrate also referred to Section 143(1) of the Evidence Act, 1994, which requires a person seeking a judgment based on asserted facts to prove those facts.
“Under Section 30 of the Elections Act, 2025, proceedings before a Revising Court follow the rules of evidence applicable to civil cases before a magistrate. Consequently, the applicable standard of proof is the balance of probabilities,” the magistrate stated.
She explained that a person challenging voter registration must establish the grounds of the objection and show that the individual concerned is not qualified to remain on the register.
Magistrate Jallow observed that Sankanu’s objection was largely based on the fact that she did not know Jammeh or recognise him as a member of the Kololi community.
The court held that these circumstances, without supporting evidence, were insufficient to establish that he was not a Gambian citizen or did not meet the residency requirements for registration in the constituency.
Jallow acknowledged that members of the public were entitled to raise genuine concerns about voter registration. However, she stressed that such concerns must be supported by evidence when brought before a court for determination.
She added that protecting the integrity of the electoral process required questionable registrations to be examined, but suspicion could not take the place of proof once an objection was formally before the court.
The magistrate emphasised that a person’s name could not be removed from the voters’ register simply because another individual suspected that the person was a foreign national.
After considering the evidence, the court found that Sankanu had failed to establish that Jammeh was not a Gambian citizen or was otherwise unqualified to remain on the voters’ register for the Serrekunda West Constituency.
Magistrate Jallow consequently dismissed the objection and ordered that Ensa Jammeh’s name remain on the voters’ register for the relevant constituency. She also directed that the appropriate entry be made in the voters’ list in accordance with Section 28(6) of the Elections Act, 2025.