[{"bbox": [96, 153, 1136, 416], "category": "Text", "text": "political parties. In addition, even though the April 9, 2022, legislative election was conducted without major incidents, no single political party commands an overall majority in the National Assembly. The hung Assembly is likely to present challenges in the passage of legislation with impact on the governance reform agenda and national development. Yet, the new Government is faced with high national and international expectations to advance on the National Development Plan's promise to 'restore good governance, respect for human rights, the rule of law, and empowering citizens through decentralization and local governance.' The new Government is thus tasked to fully consider and implement recommendations and promises to the population. Gambia is ranked 16 over 54 African countries analysed in the Ibrahim Index of Governance⁷. Gambia has a score of 55,9/100 and is the most improved country (+9.2), driven by improvements in Accountability & Transparency and its participatory environment."}, {"bbox": [96, 444, 1136, 710], "category": "Text", "text": "Beyond The Gambia, West Africa is witnessing a resurgence of coups (attempts) triggered by claims of governments' failure to deliver quality services, engage and unify citizens, address corruption and high poverty levels and combat extreme violence, among other grievances. Between 2000 and 2021, 21 coups have occurred in 14 African countries. Meanwhile, a growing trend towards constitutional revisionism has led 16 African countries to eliminate or modify presidential term limits (13 in the past six years). Increased human rights violations, disregard for the rule of law, and a rise in disinformation, misinformation and hate speech further fray the social contract and constrict civic space. The ongoing conflict in the Casamance region of Senegal, which maintains a porous border with southern Gambia/the Foni region, is already increasing insecurity. This has the potential to reverse gains made in the governance reform agenda and/or divert government and partners' attention/support from consolidating governance to conflict resolution, while also aggravating frustration amongst citizens."}, {"bbox": [85, 724, 340, 755], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 2.2 Problem Analysis"}, {"bbox": [96, 770, 762, 797], "category": "Section-header", "text": "### Weak Constitutional, human rights, and anti-corruption legal framework"}, {"bbox": [96, 823, 1136, 957], "category": "Text", "text": "The Gambia's current Constitution was amended at least 57 times since 1997, to a large extent to increase Jammeh's executive powers, diminish checks and balances and undermine protections for all. In its report, the TRRC underlined as its recommendation no. 10 under *Institutional Hearings: Justice Sector*, that 'the 1997 Constitution is deeply flawed due to the number of amendments that were made to the original and needs to be replaced with one that meets the aspirations of The Gambian people.'"}, {"bbox": [96, 982, 1136, 1328], "category": "Text", "text": "This recommendation comes a year after the rejection of a new, draft Constitution by the National Assembly in September 2020. This draft sought to introduce several measures aimed at enhancing democracy, including a presidential term limit, limits on executive power, measures to ensure greater political inclusion of groups living in vulnerable situations (including women, youth, and persons with disabilities) and a comprehensive Bill of Rights chapter, compliant with international and regional human rights standards. Gender role stereotypes are still present in the political and public life through the very low level of women's representation in public life, particularly in the legislative and decision-making positions in the executive branch, and the lack of measures taken to address the situation. It was rejected largely because of lack unanimity amongst National Assembly Members (NAMs) over certain politically divisive and contentious clauses, such as the ring-fencing of the Judiciary's budget, limitations to executive powers and the retroactive nature of the provision on the President's term limit. However, a considerable part of the public continue to demand for constitutional change, and increasingly, critical institutions driving governance reforms such as the Office of National Security, and the IEC recognize impediments to their proper functioning without amendments to the current Constitution."}, {"bbox": [96, 1353, 1136, 1564], "category": "Text", "text": "As part of his re-election inaugural address to the nation in January 2022, President Barrow announced that his Government would usher a new Constitution that introduces term limits during his current tenure. However, constitutional reform is a complicated legal and political process. Since the rejection of the draft in September 2020, a series of consensus-building engagements have taken place. Although there are reports of growing consensus, particularly on the retrospectivity of the proposed presidential term limit, it remains that a new Constitution Promulgation Bill has yet to be re-tabled before the National Assembly for scrutiny. Furthermore, there remain several other transformative human rights legislation that are yet to be passed, including bills on the Criminal Code, the Criminal Procedure Code, International Crimes, Torture, the establishment of an Anti-"}, {"bbox": [85, 1621, 727, 1646], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁷ Mo Ibrahim Foundation (2020), *Ibrahim Index of African Governance*. link"}, {"bbox": [1038, 1681, 1142, 1706], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 6 of 31"}]