By Modou Lamin Sanneh
Claim: A Facebook account named “Recruitment Portal” currently is running a purported job advert titled, “IEC is accepting applications” for various position for the presidential election.
Source: ‘Recruitment Portal’ Facebook Page
Verdict: FALSE
Claim
On October 27, 2026, a Facebook page by the name “Recruitment Portal” shared post claiming that the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) of The Gambia has opened a call for applications for 5,750 people for its 2026 recruitment exercise ahead of the December 5 presidential election.
The post refers interested applicants to a link, which further refers to a website hosted on Blogspot under the domain “iec-gm-vacancies.blogspot.com”. At the time of analysis by FactCheck Gambia, the post had attracted 50 reactions, eight comments and a single share. At least two out of eight people who commented on the post tend to believe that the call was genuine.
It appears to target people seeking employment by presenting the purported recruitment impersonating the electoral body ahead of the December 5, 2026 presidential election- a time when such recruitment is rolled out.
Fact-Check
FactCheck Gambia’s review of the IEC’s Facebook account revealed no ongoing job recruitment advertisement by the commission regarding the elections. The commission’s staff recruitment for the elections was first announced on 2nd October, and reposted on the 7th, and closing on October 15.
The subsequent post by the commission regarding recruitment came on 16th October, 2026 in which it announced that the interview dates for those shortlisted for various electoral official positions for the election are from 17 – 26 October.
FactCheck Gambia has engaged the Commission’s Director of Communications, Pa Makan Khan, who dismissed the claim. “This is false! IEC applications have closed and the Commission have already interviewed individuals,” he said.
Meanwhile, this is not the first time such a claim is associated with The Gambia’s election management body. On 7th August, 2025, the IEC issued a press release dismissing a similar advert as “fake”.
The Commission cautioned the public against unauthorised recruitment notices and unofficial online forms. It urged people to rely on its official website, verified social media platforms and national media for authentic announcements.
Conclusion
Multiple searches by FactCheck Gambia found no official IEC evidence supporting the figure of 5,750 vacancies advertised in the Facebook post under review.
Further evidence revealed that the link accompanying the said recruitment refers users to an unofficial Blogspot website that requests personal information, disguised as a recruitment platform.
Therefore, the claim that the IEC is currently recruiting 5,750 people is false.
According to the Avast Antivirus, iec-gm-vacancies.blogspot.com is an “infected URL”. “This is a scam designed to steal sensitive information like your credit card number, banking credentials, or passwords,” it said.
Verdict: FALSE
- Modou Lamin Sanneh is an Advanced Diploma Student at the Media Academy for Journalism and Communication (MAJaC). This fact-check is written in partial fulfillment of assessments in the Advanced News Writing course.
