Gambia-L,
The Point newspaper's editorial on the London Meeting, also posted on the
allafrica.com.

*****************************
Lessons Of The London Meeting
    >        >
    <A HREF="http://allafrica.com/sendpage.html">Email</A> This Page

<A HREF="http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200103030074.html">Print</A> This Page
>        >

<A HREF="http://allafrica.com/publishers.html?passed_name=The%20Point&passed_location=empty">The Point</A> EDITORIAL
March 3, 2001
Posted to the web March 3, 2001 Banjul Lessons Of The London Meeting Our two
accounts on the above meeting: the interview with Hon. Hamat Bah and the
report of our own London Correspondent have one thing in common - the focus
on the forthcoming elections.Of course, the issue of the April students
demonstrations, and other human rights issues were also high on the agenda.
But the final call was one for free and fair elections. The need for free and
fair elections seemed to have dominated the parting deliberatioons of the
meeting. Opposition members spoke about it, and the British MPs who took the
floor re-echoed the need for the forthcoming elections to be free and fair.We
know the government has had wind of it well before reports reached newspaper
editorial rooms, as one cannot rule out that their people at the meeting beat
even our journalists in sending reports. Whatever the case, government is
fully aware of the calls for a free and fair electoral process, and the
elections themselves.The calls came on the heels of the one from the
Commonwealth. This is very important because, truly speaking, the fairness or
otherwise of the forthcoming elections would determine the future relations
of this country and the international community mostly represented by our
traditional development partners.The US have to this date decried what they
termed as "unfair and unfree" electoral process in the 1996 presidential
elections. That verdict had since influenced US-Gambia relations owing to the
US Congress statutory provisions for these cases. Ambassador Haley has
attempted in many ways to surmount these diffificulties, but the fact remains
that his hands are tied.Since we do not need further marginalisation and
sanctions, and do need to help people like Ambassador Haley, a word to the
wise is enough we think. All parties and, in fact, the ruling party in the
first place, must ensure that the elections be free and fair. Let them place
their fate on the real strength of their support. Let the people decide and
choose who they want as president, parliamentarians and councillors. </HTML>

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask]
if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------