Election in Gambia you can lose your marbles while you vote!

Gambians are voting for their president with a unique marble system.

Voters enter a booth and pop a clear glass marble into one of three drums representing the candidates, instead of a putting a ballot paper into a box.

As the marble falls into the drum, it hits a bell so officials can tell if anyone votes more than once.

"It's a unique system introduced in 1965 because of Gambia's high illiteracy," Gambia's chief electoral officer Kawsu Ceesay told the BBC.

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With all the debate concerning Diebold machines I thought that this method of voting was worth mentioning. Note Im not saying that this simple method cant be tamped with.

None of their posters or T-shirts are visible and their party colours - yellow and grey respectively - are only seen at campaign meetings.

"In Africa we're scared. You only speak when you're in favour of the government," says a man who works at one of The Gambia's many tourist resorts.
Two weeks before the polls a journalist working for state television assigned to cover the opposition campaign was arrested and sacked for his coverage and another journalist, Chief Ebrima Manneh, has been missing since July.

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The voting method aside the election appears if it will be a run of the mill thrid world election.

[edit on 22-9-2006 by xpert11]