Presidential elections are scheduled to be held in the Gambia on 5 December 2026. Incumbent president Adama Barrow is running for a third term.

Background The proposed Constitution Promulgation Bill of 2020 was officially rejected in September 2020. 31 lawmakers voted in favor of the bill and 23 voted against. The country’s constitution requires a three-quarters supermajority of all members to pass its second reading and advance to a public referendum.

The 2020 draft constitution remains an important part of the debate surrounding the 2026 election. The draft proposed a two-term limit for presidents with a retroactive provision that would have counted incumbent president Adama Barrow's first term. Said provision was one of the most contentious issues during the reform process, as its adoption would have limited Barrow to only one additional term and prevented him from running in 2026.

Under the current constitution, there are no term limits, making Barrow eligible to seek re-election. Ousainou Darboe, leader of the United Democratic Party (UDP) and former vice president under Barrow, has consistently accused Barrow of obstructing the process to extend his hold on power, a claim the president's supporters reject.

Electoral system The President of the Gambia is elected in a single round by first-past-the-post voting for a five-year term. Registered voters receive a voter's card which must be presented at the assigned polling station. After verifying eligibility, a polling officer marks the voter's left forefinger with indelible ink.

Instead of using paper ballots, elections in the Gambia are conducted using marbles. Each voter receives a marble and places it in a tube on top of a sealed drum that corresponds to that voter's favoured candidate. The drums for different candidates are painted in different colours corresponding to the party affiliation of the candidate, and a picture of the candidate is affixed to their corresponding drum. The drums are placed in the booth concealed from the officials to preserve ballot secrecy; the insertion of a marble rings a bell inside to signal that the vote has been cast.

During the tallying process, a candidate's drum is unsealed and its contents emptied in batches on hole boards with a capacity of 200 to 500 marbles each. Once the tellers agree on the number of marbles, the drum is refilled and retained for use in a recount, and the tellers pass to the next candidate's urn. This process, repeated in each polling station, is very fast; the results are generally known at the national level the day after the vote.

The system has the advantages of low cost and simplicity, both for understanding how to vote and for counting the results. The method is reported to have an extremely low error rate for miscast ballots.

Candidates Declared NamePartyPositionRefAdama BarrowPresident of the Gambia (since 2017)Ousainou DarboeVice President of the Gambia (2018–2019)Bakary K. BadjieNational Assembly Member for Foni Bintang Karanai (since 2022)Mohamed Al Amin BahWAREFLeader of WAREFTalib Ahmed BensoudaMayor of KMC (since 2018) Opinion polling Polling firmDate of pollingRef.BarrowDarboeBensoudaKandehFaalOthersUndecidedSample SizeLeadGambia Participates10 August 2026322519232171,5567CepRass311218333291,556132021 election53.2327.72 - 12.3224.73 -859,56725.51

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