The National Assembly completed their second reading of the 2020 draft Constitution of the Republic of The Gambia, which was to usher in a new republic and which would have brough pertinent changes in the old constitution, including obsolete clauses that were not in favour of the democratic dispensable Gambians before 2016.
As per the laws in place, the National Assembly has the right to deny the Gambian citizens their right to decide through a referendum whether the constitution they have been consulted during the drafting is in their favour or not.
The 22nd September has already entered in the history of The Gambia as the day when the National Assembly rejected the 2020 draft constitution. It should be noted that this constitution was the product of the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC), set up by an act of the National Assembly to draft a constitution that would meet the aspirations of the Gambian people both in the Gambia and abroad.
The CRC was provided in total about GMD116 million for this exercise and it took them about three years to complete. Once the draft was submitted to Cabinet, there was a review and following the consultations it was gazetted to be submitted to the National Assembly for its promulgation.
On 22 September, yesterday, by a vote of 31 for and 23 against, the 2020 draft constitution has now been relegated to history. The Gambia will now be contented with the 1997 constitution.
This also implies that certain clauses remain unchanged unless the House decides to make suggestions for the entrenched clauses to be changed through a referendum. Some of these would be the term limit of the president, the blanket immunity on all senior government officials in the Jammeh government, some of whom have been indicted in the TRRC testimonies.
The most important question at this stage is what next?