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| Adama Barrow receives a copy of the draft constitution at State House in Banjul on Monday, March 30, 2020 (Photo taken from State House) |
(Bloomberg) -- A committee set up by President Adama Barrow to review Gambia’s constitution recommended that presidential terms should be limited to two five-year periods.
Set up in 2018, the committee was mandated to write a new supreme law that will entrench democracy in a country that was ruled over for 22 years by former dictator Yahya Jammeh.
“The term of the incumbent president shall be counted toward the 10-year period,” said Justice Cherno Sulayman Jallow, the committee chairman.
Barrow is expected to run for re-election next year after winning a 2016 vote that was enforced by Gambia’s West African neighbors when Jammeh refused to cede power. Gambia, home to about 2 million people and surrounded by Senegal except for its access to the Atlantic Ocean, has never had a smooth transfer of power.
The new constitution also introduces new checks and balances on power and promotes secularism in the Muslim-majority nation. Barrow’s cabinet and lawmakers need to approve the recommendations before it will be submitted to voters in a referendum.
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