By Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT
Civil Society Organisation Gambia Participates (GP), launched its second Pre-Election Observation Report on 2nd December 2021, two days before the Election Day urging the government not to shut down the internet gateway. Gambians will take to the polls on Saturday 4th December 2021 to cast their marble tokens for one of six Presidential Candidates, however, civil society actors are concerned that the internet may be shut down by the Government to limit the flow of information. This was exactly what happened in December 2016 when the internet was shut down on the day of the Presidential Elections.
GP’s pre-election observation report covers 9th to 30th November 2021 and provided recommendations to all stakeholders. The report recommends that “the Ministry of Information and Communication Infrastructure and Gamtel — not [to] shut down the internet gateway on election day”.
The Executive Director of GP, Marr Nyang, who acts as the Head of Election Observation Mission for their organisation explained that they are supported by the Gambia Bar Association, the University of the Gambia and the Transitional Justice Working Group. Mr Nyang claims that they have alternative means to continue their work if the internet was shut down on election day. According to Mr Nyang “access to [the] internet is also [a] human right, this is already paid for by citizens and non-citizens alike, so the government must not shutdown the internet”.
Another Civil Society Organisation named GiveOne Gambia has also launched a campaign dubbed #KeepItOn to avoid a repetition of the December 2016 Elections Internet Shutdown. In a video posted on Facebook with over 1.2 thousand views the Internet Advocates “urge[d] the government of the Gambia to keep the internet on during the upcoming presidential elections. Internet shutdowns violate fundamental human rights such as freedom of expression and opinion, access to information, press freedom, and freedom of peaceful assembly.”
One system which is reliant on the internet is Marble Gambia, a mobile phone application launched by GP. The application which can be downloaded on Google Play and App Store promises to notify users with “live CERTIFIED election results on Election Day”. One advertorial post on social media also promises to inform users on “which candidate is winning in every constituency”.
During the question-and-answer session our reporter asked if GP is prepared to observe the election without internet access. Head of Election Observation, Mr Marr Nyang responded to say “with or without internet we are observing the elections. The means of reporting [for their election observers] is via coded text messages. The text messages we receive go straight to the database; it does not go to the mobile phones”.
Explaining how the data is processed Mr Nyang detailed that “the database does the aggregation as [the reports are] — received from the observers”. Providing an example of the quality checks conducted on their data, Mr Nyang narrated that if a report is submitted by an observer and deemed to be invalid, they would be notified within 10 seconds with a text message to re-submit a valid report.
However, the Executive Director admitted that to access their database required internet which is “why not only us but all the observers and media houses; we are emphasising [to] the Government of the Gambia that the right to communicate is a human right and access to information is also is a human right”.
In his view, taxpayers have already for the internet service to be online “so the government must not shut down the internet”. “Whereas the internet is actually shut down, the gateway is shut down we have an alternative to get our results,” said Mr Nyang.
When pressed on what alternative means he could employ he deferred to comment and reveal his plans.