By Arret Jatta
The United Democratic Party (UDP) has called on the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to release information on the 2026 supplementary voter registration exercise, citing a discrepancy of 28,932 voters between the commission’s announced figures and a dataset provided to the party.
In a press statement issued yesterday, the UDP said the IEC announced a total of 212,095 registered voters, while the dataset provided to the party contained 183,163 voters.
The party said the difference represents approximately 13.6 per cent of the announced total and requires a clear explanation from the electoral body.
The UDP stressed that it was not presenting the discrepancy as proof of electoral malpractice but said the figures needed reconciliation to establish confidence in the accuracy of the voters’ register.
The party also accused the IEC of failing to respond to its repeated formal requests for information about the supplementary voter registration exercise.
According to the statement, the UDP has requested registration statistics before and after the removal of duplicate records, details of deleted registrations, and the methodology used to identify and verify duplicate entries.
It also wanted the IEC to provide voter registration datasets, broken down by administrative area, constituency, registration centre, gender and age category, where available.
The UDP said the information would allow political parties to independently examine registration figures and verify the accuracy of the voters’ register.
While acknowledging that some final reconciliation documents could depend on ongoing revising courts proceedings, the party argued that this should not prevent the IEC from releasing other information already available for disclosure.
The party urged the commission to respond to its outstanding correspondence, explain the voter registration discrepancy and disclose its verification procedures, subject to applicable data protection laws.
The UDP warned that continued silence could undermine public confidence in the electoral process ahead of the December 5 presidential election.
It also called on civil society organisations, the media, development partners and international stakeholders to encourage transparency and accountability.