National Assembly of the Gambia

National Assembly of the Gambia
National Assembly of the Gambia
Type
Type	Unicameral
Leadership
Speaker	Mariam Jack-Denton (United Democratic) ; since 11 April 2017
Deputy Speaker	Momodou L. K. Sanneh (United Democratic) ; since 11 April 2017
Majority Leader	[de] (United Democratic) ; since 11 April 2017
Minority Leader	Samba Jallow (National Reconciliation) ; since 19 April 2012
Structure
Seats	58;
Political groups	Majority (37) UDP (27); NRP (5); PPP (2); Opposition (21) Independents (9); Appointed (5); APRC (5); GDC (5); PDOIS (4);
Elections
Voting system	First-past-the-post; with 5 appointed by the President
Last election	6 April 2017
Next election	April 2022
Meeting place
	Parliament Buildings, Banjul
Website
	The Gambian National Assembly

The National Assembly of the Gambia is the unicameral legislature of the Gambia. The authorisation for the National Assembly lies in Chapter VII of the Constitution of the Gambia. It is composed of 53 members directly elected through first past the post, and a further five members appointed by the President.

The next elections are set for 22 April 2022.

Composition and electoral system[]

The National Assembly is unicameral and consists of 58 members who serve a five-year term. 53 members are directly elected while the remaining five are appointed by the President. Members are elected in single-member constituencies using the simple majority, or first-past-the-post system.

History[]

Legislative representation based on universal adult suffrage in the Gambia began in May 1962, when elections were held for a 32-seat House of Representatives. These elections were won by the People's Progressive Party (PPP), which was led by Dawda Jawara. After independence in 1965, the PPP continued to dominate the House of Representatives by winning a series of free, democratic elections in 1966, 1972, 1977, 1982, 1987, and 1992. While opposition parties were continuously present in the House, they were never able to successfully wrest power from the PPP. Jawara's government was overthrown in a July 1994 military coup led by Yahya Jammeh. The constitution and all elected institutions, including the House of Representatives, were dissolved. After the coup, political party activities were banned. The ban was lifted in August 1996 following the approval of a new constitution, but three Jawara-era parties – the PPP, Gambian People's Party (GPP), and the National Convention Party (NCP) remained proscribed.

Legislative elections to the renamed National Assembly took place on 2 January 1997. Jammeh's Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) won 33 out of 45 seats, the opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) won 7, two went to both the National Reconciliation Party (NRP) and Independents, with the People's Democratic Organization for Independence and Socialism (PDOIS) winning the remaining seat.

The [de] (IEC) lifted the ban on the PPP, GPP, and NCP in August 2001, five months before the next scheduled legislative election.

On April 7, 2017, the IEC announced that UDP had won a majority of 31 seats out of 53 available during the 2017 legislative elections.

Leadership[]

The current leadership of the National Assembly is as follows: Mariam Jack-Denton is the Speaker of the National Assembly, Momodou L.K. Sanneh is the Deputy Speaker, Ousainou Darboe is the Majority Leader, and Fabakary Jatta is the Minority Leader. The Speaker and Deputy Speaker may only be chosen from among the presidential appointees to the National Assembly, not the elected members.^[1]

Role	Term of Office	Party
Speaker of the National Assembly
Mustapha B. Wadda	1997–2002	APRC
Sheriff Mustapha Dibba	2002–2006	NCP
Belinda Bidwell	2006–2007	Independent
	2007–2010	APRC
Abdoulie Bojang	2010–2017	APRC
Mariam Jack-Denton	2017–present	UDP
Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly
Cecilia Cole	1997–2000	APRC
Belinda Bidwell	2002–2006	Independent
	2006–2007	APRC
Abdoulie Bojang	2007–2010	APRC
	2010–2017	APRC
Momodou L. K. Sanneh	2017–present	UDP
Majority Leader
Tamsir Jallow	1997–2002	APRC
Baba Jobe	2002–2003	APRC
Churchill Baldeh	2003–2007	APRC
Fabakary Jatta	2007–2017	APRC
	2017–present	UDP
Minority Leader
Kemesseng Jammeh	1997–2002	UDP
Halifa Sallah	2002–2007	PDOIS
Momodou L. K. Sanneh	2007–2012	UDP
Samba Jallow	2012–present	NRP

References[]

^ Political Parties of the World (6th edition, 2005), ed. Bogdan Szajkowski, page 242.

External links[]

Official website

Coordinates: 13°27′37″N 16°34′53″W / 13.46028°N 16.58139°W / 13.46028; -16.58139

[1] Political Parties of the World (6th edition, 2005), ed. Bogdan Szajkowski, page 242.

[1]

v t Legislatures in Africa
Sovereign states	Algeria Angola Benin Botswana Burkina Faso Burundi Cameroon Cape Verde Central African Republic Chad Comoros Democratic Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo Djibouti Egypt Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Eswatini Ethiopia Gabon The Gambia Ghana Guinea Guinea-Bissau Ivory Coast Kenya Lesotho Liberia Libya Madagascar Malawi Mali Mauritania Mauritius Morocco Mozambique Namibia Niger Nigeria Rwanda São Tomé and Príncipe Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Somalia South Africa South Sudan Sudan Tanzania Togo Tunisia Uganda Western Sahara Zambia Zimbabwe
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Italics indicate an unrecognised or partially recognised state.

v t National unicameral legislatures
Federal	Comoros Germany Iraq Federated States of Micronesia Saint Kitts and Nevis United Arab Emirates Venezuela
Unitary	Albania Andorra Angola Armenia Azerbaijan Bangladesh Benin Botswana Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Cape Verde Central African Republic Chad China Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Denmark Djibouti Dominica East Timor Ecuador El Salvador Eritrea Estonia Fiji Finland Gambia Georgia Ghana Greece Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Honduras Hungary Iceland Iran Israel Kiribati North Korea South Korea Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Malawi Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Mozambique Nauru New Zealand Nicaragua Niger North Macedonia Norway Palestine Panama Papua New Guinea Peru Portugal Qatar Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino São Tomé and Príncipe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Solomon Islands Sri Lanka Suriname Sweden Syria Tanzania Togo Tonga Tunisia Turkey Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine Vanuatu Vatican City Vietnam Yemen Zambia
Dependent and other territories	Åland Islands Anguilla Aruba Azores British Virgin Islands Cayman Islands Curaçao Falkland Islands Faroe Islands French Polynesia Gibraltar Greenland Guam Guernsey Hong Kong Jersey Madeira Macau Montserrat New Caledonia Pitcairn Islands Saint Barthélemy Saint Helena Saint Martin Saint Pierre and Miquelon Sint Maarten Tokelau Turks and Caicos Islands U.S. Virgin Islands Wallis and Futuna
Non-UN states	Abkhazia Artsakh Cook Islands Kosovo Niue Northern Cyprus Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic South Ossetia Taiwan Transnistria
Historical	Confederate States (1861–1862) Czechoslovakia (1948–1969) Irish Republic (1919–1922) Norfolk Island Scotland Sicily Sikkim (1953–1975) South African Republic (1857–1902)
Related	Bicameralism Tricameralism Multicameralism List of legislatures by country
National bicameral legislatures National lower houses National upper houses

v t Elections and referendums in The Gambia
Presidential elections	1982 1987 1992 1996 2001 2006 2011 2016 2021
Parliamentary elections	1947 1951 1954 1960 1962 1966 1972 1977 1982 1987 1992 1997 2002 2007 2012 2017 2022
Local elections
Referendums	1965 1970 1996