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Gambia presidential election 2026

Polling day · date declared · local times in Africa/Banjul (hover for UTC) · last verified 2026-09-24

RaceBodySeatsPolls closeNowCounting authority
Presidenthead-of-stateScheduledIndependent Electoral Commission

President

Count stages

StageExpected fromExpected byReplaced on the live pageConfidenceBasis
election-night — precedentIEC (iec.gm, Voting Procedures): 'Polls open at 8.00 am and close at 5.00pm', and voters still queuing at 5 pm may vote, so the last votes can be cast after 17:00. The Gambia is UTC+0 with no DST, so polls close at 17:00 UTC. Votes are counted at the polling stations and collated by constituency (IFES FAQ, Nov 2021). 2021: partial results were public on Sunday 5 Dec, the day after the 4 Dec vote, and were contested by three candidates before the final declaration (France 24, Al Jazeera, 5-6 Dec 2021). The window closes at the end of Sunday 6 Dec 2026. These are partial counts, not the IEC's declared result.
final-result — precedentThe IEC chairman declares the winner. 2021: chairman Alieu Momarr Njai declared Barrow 'duly elected' late on Sunday 5 Dec 2021, day 1 after the 4 Dec vote (VOA 5 Dec 2021; Al Jazeera 6 Dec 2021). 2016: vote 1 Dec, results released 2 Dec (IFES FAQ 2021: 'There is no official date for the announcement of election results ... results have been tabulated within 24 to 48 hours'). We found no statutory deadline: the Elections Act, 2025 (cited for this election's nominations, Malagen 2026) was not available to read online. The window runs to the end of Wednesday 9 Dec 2026, day 4, erring late beyond both precedents. The floor (20:00 UTC on polling night) is an estimate: a same-night declaration has no precedent. Election system: first past the post, one round; Constitution s.48 requires a second ballot only if the top candidates tie, 'not later than fourteen days' after. Challenges: a participating party or independent candidate may petition the Supreme Court 'within ten days of the declaration of the result' (Constitution s.49). The Court does not confirm the result otherwise. 2021: the UDP petition was dismissed on procedural grounds on 28 Dec 2021 (VOA, 28 Dec 2021).

Sources

URLRoleKindCan answer a results questionLast check
iec.gm/cat_doc/election-results/results-finalresults indexno (results section without an election code)not checked yet
iec.gm/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/ELECTORALCALENDAR2026-2027.pdftimetableotherno (election page without a results marker)not checked yet
thepoint.gm/africa/gambia/headlines/2026-presidential-election-set-for-dec-5-iec-chairmantimetableotherno (election page without a results marker)not checked yet
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Gambian_presidential_electionsee-alsootherno (election page without a results marker)not checked yet
iec.gmauthority-homeemb homeno (site root: cannot answer a results question)not checked yet

Questions and answers

When is the Gambia presidential election 2026?
Polling day is 2026-12-05 (declared).
When will the final result of the President race be official?
Expected between 2026-12-05T20:00:00Z and 2026-12-09T23:59:59Z (UTC), confidence precedent. The IEC chairman declares the winner. 2021: chairman Alieu Momarr Njai declared Barrow 'duly elected' late on Sunday 5 Dec 2021, day 1 after the 4 Dec vote (VOA 5 Dec 2021; Al Jazeera 6 Dec 2021). 2016: vote 1 Dec, results released 2 Dec (IFES FAQ 2021: 'There is no official date for the announcement of election results ... results have been tabulated within 24 to 48 hours'). We found no statutory deadline: the Elections Act, 2025 (cited for this election's nominations, Malagen 2026) was not available to read online. The window runs to the end of Wednesday 9 Dec 2026, day 4, erring late beyond both precedents. The floor (20:00 UTC on polling night) is an estimate: a same-night declaration has no precedent. Election system: first past the post, one round; Constitution s.48 requires a second ballot only if the top candidates tie, 'not later than fourteen days' after. Challenges: a participating party or independent candidate may petition the Supreme Court 'within ten days of the declaration of the result' (Constitution s.49). The Court does not confirm the result otherwise. 2021: the UDP petition was dismissed on procedural grounds on 28 Dec 2021 (VOA, 28 Dec 2021).
Where are the official President results?
No single-election results page is recorded yet. The counting authority is Independent Electoral Commission (https://iec.gm/).

Data

Provenance: researcher agent 2026-09-24: IEC Electoral Calendar 2026-2027 (iec.gm PDF), iec.gm Voting Procedures, iec.gm results index, Constitution of The Gambia 1997 ss.48-49 (constituteproject.org), IFES Elections FAQ Gambia 2021, The Point 10 Oct 2025, Gambia Journal 10 Sep 2026, VOA 5 and 28 Dec 2021, Al Jazeera 6 Dec 2021, France 24 5 Dec 2021 (CC BY 4.0 (Election Index)). Cite as: Election Index, "Gambia presidential election 2026", https://electionindex.org/election/gambia-presidential-2026, dataset 2026-09-24.4702fd43.