CLAIM: Did UDP’s Sulayman Sanneh win the Kaiaf Ward By-election with 820 votes as claimed?
SOURCE: Lamin Khan Fan… (WhatsApp Page)
VERDICT: False
FULL TEXT
The by-elections of the Kaiaf Ward was scheduled today 10 January 2026 and polls closed two hours ago. The election has been highly contested between the UDP’s Sulayman Sanneh and the NPP’s Omar Touray. This was reported by reputable Gambian news outlets that have been on spot.
The claim circulating online that specific vote totals shown in the screenshot on a WhatsApp group chat named “Lamin Khan Fan…, show that UDP’s candidate got 820 and NPP 431. These reports as per our verification are not from any official or credible source published by the IEC or major news outlets that we can verify.
Recent social-media reports from credible Gambian media houses (e.g., Kerr Fatou, The Alkamba Times, Atlantic TV etc) show that the NPP candidate Omar Touray won the Kaiaf Ward by-election with 1127 votes while UDP’s Sulayman Sanneh secured 895 votes. These reports have indicated that the numbers captured in that WhatsApp message circulating online are false. The screenshot’s claim of UDP winning with those exact vote counts is false.
CONCLUSION
The shared screenshot from Lamin Khan Fan.. circulating online is false as the reported numbers are not in alignment with results shared by the media houses mentioned above. The Independent Electoral Commission has not released any official results from any of the polling stations yet.