- Start
- Apr 10, 202775% CONFIDENCEsource
The Gambia Elects a National Assembly
- The Gambia elects its National Assembly on 10 April 2027, the second of four polls in the Independent Electoral Commission's 2026-2027 calendar: presidential on 5 December 2026, assembly on 10 April, councillors on 22 May, and mayors and chairpersons on 26 June 2027.
- IEC chairman Joseph Colley announced the calendar at its launch in Bijilo in October 2025, citing Section 43 of the Constitution, which charges the commission with conducting elections and setting their dates. A supplementary voter registration exercise (planned 1 April to 14 May 2026) topped up the 2021 register.
- The chamber has 58 members: 53 elected from single-member constituencies by first-past-the-post, with the other five appointed by the President. A party therefore needs 29 seats for an outright majority.
- The baseline is the vote of 9 April 2022, the country's first hung parliament: President Barrow's NPP won 18 seats, the UDP 15, NRP 4, PDOIS 2, APRC 2 and independents an unprecedented 12.
- The NPP took only about 29% of the assembly vote, against 53% for Barrow in the December 2021 presidential race, and turnout fell to roughly 51% from 89%. The NPP reached 29 seats only by adding its five appointees and allies including the NRP and APRC.
- That makes 2027 a test of whether the 2026 presidential result carries down to the constituencies, and how many independents hold their seats.
Boundary research — 2026-10-25
Research checked 25 October 2026. Boundary coverage remains unverified.
The IEC ward roster establishes 53 named constituencies. It supplies membership information, rather than geographic polygon boundaries.
Two geographic sources were inspected: 115 valid NDMA/OCHA ward polygons, marked valid on 1 September 2022, and 120 valid World Bank-derived geoBoundaries ward polygons representing 2020. Neither has a verified crosswalk to the current IEC electoral wards. Similar ward counts do not establish equivalent boundaries.
Busumbala, Old Yundum and Sanneh Mentereng divide older coastal ward groupings. Whole-ward unions would therefore need additional verified cut lines.
Still needed: current IEC/GBOS ward polygons or georeferenced legal boundaries, particularly for those three coastal seats, reconciled with all 53 constituencies. No administrative map has been relabelled as a complete electoral layer.
Research sources: