Election management officials in The Gambia have announced that there are plans to do away with the system of voting with glass marbles in that country.
The country now wants to switch to using ballot papers as it done in most African countries.
According to the Standard Newspaper the chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) Alieu Momarr Njai has said that the marble ballot system is a major challenge.
The IEC boss is quoted as saying that “We cannot afford to continue with this ballot system. With the change of system in governance, Gambians are now participating in politics in numbers and that means in every election, we will have to make lots of drums and paint them with different colours,”
The glass ballot used for decades now was meant to eliminate spoilt ballots and enable illiterate vote easily.
Africanews reported that Mr. Njai told a news portal that “There are countries using the ballot papers that have lower literacy level than us. These drums are not just expensive to make but you have to paint them with party colours and where you have independent candidates, you have to give each a colour.”
The IEC boss further said that “We are working on ensuring that this is done before the local government election because marble is practical and easy when you have few political participants.”
Gambia currently has less than 900,000 registered voters.
Source: Africafeeds.com
