The banning of MOJA by the Jawara administration in 1980 led to a wave
of asylum seeking which took many Gambian youth to Sweden and the
other Scandinavian countries. The banning of political parties in 1994after the coup led to a new wave of asylum seeking from the Gambia.
This was further buttressed in 1996 when the PPP, NCP and GPP were
banned from being registered to participate in the 1996 presidential
election.
Since the ban was lifted, many Gambian youth rely on human rights
issues to seek political asylum abroad to earn income to support their
poor families.
What is the importance of March 31st 2016? The answer is simple. The
IEC has introduced a notice to indicate that by 31stMarch all parties
must register 10,000 members and pay a fee of One Million Dalasi or
they would be deregistered. Some parties may prefer to put up
Independent Candidates rather than spend millions of dalasi as non
refundable registration fee in an election year. Their members are
likely to seek political asylum if party candidates standing as
Independent candidates do not win. It is therefore in the interest of
all for electoral reform to take place in The Gambia so that there
would be free and fair elections.
