The House of Representatives of the Gambia was the legislature of

the Gambia The Gambia,, ff, Gammbi, ar, غامبيا officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. It is the smallest country within mainland AfricaHoare, Ben. (2002) ''The Kingfisher A-Z Encyclopedia'', Kingfisher Publicatio ...

from 1960 to 1994, succeeding the Legislative Council and being succeeded by the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the r ...

History

The House of Representatives was established by the 1959 constitution drawn up by Edward Henry Windley, then

Governor of the Gambia This is a list of colonial governors and administrators in the Gambia from the establishment of a British settlement on St Mary's Island, now known as Banjul Island, in 1816, through to the Gambia Colony and Protectorate's independence from the ...

. It came into operation for the 1960 election, replacing the Legislative Council. Initially, the House had 34 members. 27 of these were directly elected, seven were nominated, and there was also a

Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** In ...

. 19 were elected directly by universal suffrage, with a voting age of 21, and the other 8 were elected indirectly by the Conference of Protectorate Chiefs. Of the 19 directly elected members, 12 represented the Protectorate, and 7 represented the Colony constituencies. A constitutional conference in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in July 1961 agreed to some changes to the composition of the House, that were implemented for the 1962 election. The number of directly elected members was increased from 19 to 32. The Colony's representation remained at 7, with that of the Protectorate increasing to 25. The number of chiefs was reduced to 4, and there was also one ex-officio member and two nominated members (who were not permitted to vote). Prior to the 1966 election, the number of Bathurst seats was reduced from 5 to 3, with the extra 2 seats being granted to the Provinces. The number of directly elected seats was increased to 35 in 1977 and to 36 in 1987, with all members being elected by the first past the post system. In 1982, the number of indirectly-elected chiefs was increased by one to 5, while in 1992 there were 8 nominated members, representing special interest groups such as women, business and trade unions. Initially, the House met 3 or 4 times a year, but by the 1990s this was up to 8 times a year, with sittings lasting for up to 8 days. Following the 1994 coup d'état, the House of Representatives was abolished and was replaced by the

in 1997.

Political composition

Throughout its lifetime, the House was dominated by MPs of the People's Progressive Party, which was also the party of the President,

Dawda Jawara Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara (16 May 1924 – 27 August 2019) was a Gambian politician who served as Prime Minister from 1962 to 1970, and then as the first President of the Gambia from 1970 to 1994. Jawara was born in Barajally, MacCarthy Island ...

References

{{Reflist Government of the Gambia Politics of the Gambia Political organisations based in the Gambia National legislatures Unicameral legislatures