Attempts at constitutional reform in The Gambia: Whither the Draft Constitution?
Posted: 26 October, 2020 Filed under: Satang Nabaneh | Tags: Adama Barrow, Constitution Promulgation Bill, constitution-drafting process, Constitutional Reform, Constitutional Review Commission, CRC, dictatorship, Draft Constitution, Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, Final Draft Constitution and Report, National Transitional Justice Programme, New Constitution, The Gambia, Yahya Jammeh 1 Comment
Author: Satang Nabaneh
Post-doctoral Fellow, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria
The Gambia’s constitution-drafting process, aimed at ushering in a third Republic, has reached an unfortunate dead-end. More than two years after the constitutional review process began, and after a highly acrimonious and polarised debate in the National Assembly, Parliament, one week ago (on 22 September 2020), rejected the proposed Constitution Promulgation Bill, 2020 (‘the Bill’). The Bill would have enabled the eventual promulgation the Constitution of the Gambia, 2020 (‘Draft Constitution’) and the repeal of the Constitution of the Republic of The Gambia, 1997 (‘1997 Constitution’). Twenty-three lawmakers in the National Assembly voted against the Bill, while thirty-one supported it. This was, however, not a big enough majority to meet the threshold requirement of three-quarters of members needed to effect constitutional change. The Draft Constitution could, therefore, not be put to a referendum.
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