The Gambia National Assembly has finally amended the controversial and discriminatory age limit bill that was inserted into the 1997 constitution designed to keep senior citizens from contesting for the office of the President. Section 62(1)(c) of the 1997 constitution effectively banned any Gambian citizen age 65 and over from contesting for the office of the President and by default disqualifying them from legally occupying the office of the Vice President. The constitutional provision also kept Gambian citizens from becoming judges after the age of 75.
At the time of enacting the bill into the constitution many people believed it was orchestrated by the AFPRC military junta purposely designed to prevent former officials of the first Republic from contesting the office of President. At the time many Gambians did not realized what the government rationale was in promoting that provision into the constitution. The military Junta were certainly counselled to accept this provision by legal experts like former Attorney General and Minister of Justice Fafa Ederisa Mbye who was alleged to be behind most of the legal provisions the military junta came up with.
The discriminatory bill against senior citizens became a bigger issue when leader of the United Democratic party Ousainou Darboe turned 65 before the Presidential elections in December 2016. Mr. Darboe and others had vehemently disagreed with the provision but indicated that they couldn’t challenge the “constitutionality of the constitution” in Gambia’s court system. In fact, the age limit provision may have triggered more tension between the United Democratic Party and Jammeh’s government leading to the April 14th historic protest that led to the death of UDP’s Youth leader Solo Sandeng who was arrested by the NIA. Mr. Darboe and his entire UDP Executive protested against the killing of Sandeng which subsequently led to the politically motivated arrest and imprisonment of Darboe and others.
The controversial age limit also created another controversy when Aja Fatoumata Tambajang, one of the pioneers of the coalition which defeated dictator Jammeh during the 2016 December elections was appointment by President Barrow as Vice President. She was believed to be over the age of 65 and not legally qualified as VP. Her appointment marked the first controversial decision the New President made after taken over office in January 2017. Many citizens decried the appointment as unconstitutional. A bill was prematurely presented to the National Assembly shortly after the NA elections which did not follow the usual protocol of being published in the national Gazette for a period of 3 months prior to its eligibility for amendment by the National Assembly. Halifa Sallah leader of PDOIS and member of parliament for Serekunda Constituency called out the bill as unconstitutional because of lack of proper protocol. The bill was later pulled which caused a lot of embarrassment for the new attorney general and the Barrow Government. Mrs Jallow Tambajang was later appointed as minister of women affairs overseeing the VP office. This continued to be a hotly contested issue and was largely seen as unconstitutional. It also affected the effectiveness of the would be VP in her role overseeing the position.
The passage of this bill effectively clears that controversy and Aja Fatoumata Tambajang is likely to be officially appointed as VP and sworn in as early as Thursday or Friday of this week. This will finally put the most controversial cloud hanging the new administration to rest. It will now empower the VP to officially occupy the office. The passage of the bill is a step in the right direction not only for the VP position, but the appointment of judges and opening wide the opportunity for senior citizens to contest for the Presidency in the next cycle of general elections. It would be interesting to see if many of these experience politicians would be contesting the presidential elections. Many Gambians would be interested to see whether the UDP leader Ousainou Darboe and even Halifa Sallah, OJ Jallow and others who would have been over age 65 would now contest the elections for the office of President in five years. Where that leaves the current President is another interesting scenario. For now Gambia would legally have a VP occupy the office.
Report filed by Demba Baldeh
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