There were 796,929 registered voters before the supplementary registration of voters this year. Hence this number of voters joined the list. Some people have started questioning how a population of 1.88 million according to the last census could have 886,578 registered voters.
Foroyaa will contact statisticians so that they will be able to gather the facts from the last census to enable us to know how many Gambians are above 18 years of age. It is evident that the census has provided the number of people who are within certain age range. We cannot give the facts by relying on the census because the ages 15 to 19 are grouped together.
We would recommend that in subsequent census the age grouping would take into consideration the age delineation between children and adults. Under Gambian law 18 years is the voting age. Hence it is good to classify age groups below 18 and those that are 18 and above. If that was done we would have been able to indicate how many Gambians are within the age range for voters so that one would be able to gauge whether the 886,578 persons who are now registered as voters are equivalent to the number of people who have the right to vote in The Gambia. Facts should substitute speculation.
