Breaking: Gambia’s National Assembly Kills 2020 Constitution Bill at Second Reading

By Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT

The Gambia’s National Assembly voted not to progress with the third reading of the Constitution Bill 2020 on 22nd September 2020. The Bill which seeks to install term limits and the 50+1 clause needed at least 42 National Assembly Members (NAMs) to vote yes to progress the Bill, however, only 31 NAMs voted for the Bill while 23 NAMs voted against the Bill.

Since last week Monday, 14th September 2020, the National Assembly had been at loggerheads with the Media and Civil Society. First, the National Assembly blocked Gambian Media from entering the National Assembly chambers, only allowing three cherry picked media houses into the chambers, namely; QTV, GRTS and EyeAFrica TV. This prompted the Gambia Press Union to hold a press conference condemning the decision by Parliament to unilaterally pick and choose media outlets to cover parliamentary proceedings without any notice and on such an important sitting.

By the end of last week, National Assembly deliberations provided a hint that the Constitution Bill 2020 could be rejected, killing the bill dead in its tracks. This prompted Civil Society to spring into action with an aggressive lobbying campaign. Civil Society advocates hand delivered letters to National Assembly members and held a press conference on Saturday 19th September. This was followed by public sensitisation using mass media including radio, social media and WhatsApp.

By Monday the die was cast and NAMs began more deliberations on the Constitution Bill 2020, heightening concerns that the three-quarters threshold would not be reached. By Monday evening a rare joint Communique by European Union, the United States, Britain and Germany begun circulating urging the National Assembly to “progress the [Constitution Bill, 2020] final stages of parliamentary scrutiny“.

EU, US, Britain and Germany call for Third Reading

According to the unprecedented joint press release published yesterday “the EU Delegation, the United States Embassy, the British High Commission and the German Embassy urge members of the National Assembly to vote the draft Bill on the revised constitution to progress to the final stages of parliamentary scrutiny. The draft constitution is the result of extensive consultations with Gambians across the country and in the diaspora, with significant investment of resources, intellectual discussion and debate by Gambians from all walks of life.”

“In order to consolidate the hard won democratic gains in recent years, it is vital to the credibility of the current transition to truly democratic, accountable government that the people of The Gambia themselves are given the opportunity to vote in a referendum on the new constitution. Denying them that opportunity is to deny one of the most demanded objectives from the 2016 election, and risks signalling abandonment by this transition government of one of its most significant commitments to the Gambian electorate.”

Back in April 2020, the EU released a presser highlighting that they had “granted 512,640,000 GMD (Є 9,000,000) of Budget Support to help The Gambia to implement its responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. EU budget support can contribute to catalyzing further financial assistance from Development Partners, thereby helping to mitigate sanitary but also economic and social costs from the Covid-19 pandemic, in addition to supporting the achievement of medium-term development objectives.“

The presser continued to highlight that “Important milestones are ahead, including the Constitutional Referendum at the end of this year [2020] and the much-needed Security Sector Reform.”

This indicates the expectation of the EU on the Gambian Government when agreeing on the grant. This goes without saying that it will be very interesting to note if the EU decides to pull out its donor support from the Gambia.

What Next?

The Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) told the media that they spent D116 Million Dalasis on the drafting of the Constitution Bill 2020. I reached out to the CRC Public Relations Officer who says they are looking at responding to the surprise blow from the National Assembly which mandated the CRC to publish a Draft Constitution via its CRC Act in 2017.

Many people are wondering what next from here given that the National Assembly has rejected the Bill. Tomorrow NAMs are expected to debate other Bills including the State of the Nation Address by the President delivered last Thursday 17th September 2020. For now, it’s not sure if a revised Constitution Bill will be tabled. Alternatively, the National Assembly may decide to amend the 1997 Constitution and still progress towards a referendum. However, the National Assembly can always decide to do nothing and continue with the very laws that many of them agreed needed amending.

NAMS WHICH VOTED YES FOR CONSTITUTION BILL 2020