Nearly nine in ten registered Gambians cast a ballot in the 2021 presidential election — one of the highest turnout rates recorded anywhere in recent African elections. That baseline is the number every 2026 turnout figure will be measured against.
What follows is the full 2021 result rebuilt as charts instead of a static tally sheet: the national picture, the regional splits that actually decided it, and a ready-made template to slot the December 5, 2026 numbers in beside them the moment results start coming in.
Six candidates contested. Two — Barrow and Darboe — accounted for 81% of the national vote between them.
Vote share (donut) against how each region actually turned out to vote (bar) — turnout ranged from 79.5% in Janjanbureh town to over 94% in parts of Kiang and Foni.
National vote share
Turnout by region (%)
The seven administrative areas the IEC counts by. Kanifing and Brikama alone cast 63% of all ballots — whoever wins those two, wins the count.
Vote share by region (%)
The underlying numbers behind every chart above, region totals highlighted.
All seven regions cleared 80% turnout, so all seven qualify here. Each bar is scaled to that region's registered electorate — the filled portion is ballots actually cast, the unfilled gap is who stayed home. Note: the IEC sheet gives registered electorate, not total resident population — that's the base used below.
A side-by-side frame, pre-built. Drop in 2026 turnout and results as the IEC releases them, and the comparison is instant. Nothing here is a projection — the 2026 column is intentionally empty.