Gambia is highlighting the tendency in in a number of
African countries where soldiers who seized power
through coups to reinvent themselves as democratic
leaders.Let's have a look at some of west African
atates as example -Niger,Togo,Burkina Faso,Guinea and
Ivory Coast.These military leaders like Jammeh
remained in power in part by manipulating elections or
by forcing the opposition to withdraw their
challenge.Yahya a former Lft.,has cultivated a
constituent base of support from the security forces
that has allowed him to from a coup leader to a so
call winner of a multiparty elections all while
steering the country through a difficult period of
economic hardship.The degree of which both economic
and political insttitutions had deteriorated from the
time of Jammeh's July 22nd coup.Over the last 6/7
years ,however,disastrous import tarifs,sagging import
revenues,rampant corruption,and statism laid wast to
the economic.
  The 2001 elections are fast approaching.Since the
1996 presidential elections, no changes had been made
in the electoral process/administration demonstrating
that the electoral commission members are not secured
from illegal termination of their services.Meaning
they are open to intimidation by the government and
still yet no steps have been taken to guarantee their
security in their jobs.The opposition have learned
enough lessons from the 1996/97 elections to enables
us to call for a number of important and effective
changes in the electoral administration.what is more
important today is to bring Jammeh to his knees by
forcing him to talk with the opposition about tangible
mechanism of having a free and fair elections that
would convince the opposition that the forth coming
elections will be free from manipulation.
 As we are talking today,there is No tentitive steps
created to assure the opposition or gambian people
that there would be a transparent electoral
process;the electioral process would be free from
intimidation and harassment;that there would be no
restrictions of political freedoms;that there would be
an equal axcess to the public media;that the ex-22nd
july leaders who are today the assistant commissioners
would be replace by competent civil servants;that the
daily sacking of inocent civil servants,arresting of
opinion leaders,the frequent sacking of
judges,magistrates,teachers,nurses,doctors and village
heads would stop.If the above mentioned issues are not
taken care of,we would be wasting our time and
supporting Jammeh's legitimacy for the second term in
office.why should the opposition accept going for
elections just for the seek of going for elections
while the ingredients of elections are
lacking.Please,we should not allow ourselves to be
confuse by these corrupt and selfish elements who are
aiding and abiting individuals who are waiting for a
trial of crime against humanity.
 If we want our be love country to be free from this
drama,we must call for an electoral system reliable
enough to banish controversies about voter fraud there
by allowing energy to be rechanneled toward the
building of an effective programme of democratization.
 On the alledged UDP inconsistencies,i must tell you
that we are respondinding according to how the game is
been play.
 Today UDP have about 20 cases in the courts
pending.They are ranging from human rights
violations,illegal arrests,illegal sacking,denial of
permit etc.These cases are in every Divisional court
from
Banjul,Kanifing,Brikama,Kerewan,Mansakonko,Janjanbure
and Basse.This is just to tell how the party is
engaged.
Saihou




--- saihou Mballow <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hamjatta,Toure and Barrow,
>  UDP strongly appreciate your commentary and
> observations on the party's position and statements
> on
> the sacking of Bishop T.Johnson,the bring back of
> Mr.
> Roberts as the electoral commission chairman.
>  The fraudulent conduct or the rigging of the Kiang
> by-elections by means of voting buying.These matters
> were under investigations by the party's legal team
> and they recognized strong irregularities in the
> poll
> and concluded that the results didn't reflect the
> voters wishes.
>  The party had questioned the neutrality of the
> electoral commission,whose members are Jammeh's hand
> picked and particularly Mr.Roberts who was the the
> commission's chairman during the 1996 presidential
> and
> 1997 National Assembly elections in which the
> country
> experienced a "transition without change."
>   I would come back on tomorrow after consultation
> with the legal team and why the
> inconsistencies.Thank
> you.
> Saihou
>
>
>
> --- Hamjatta Kanteh <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > Barrow & Toure,
> > Brothers, i share your view that the UDP is
> capable
> > inconsistencies that if
> > left unchecked would in the long run seek to
> > undermine its combative-ness
> > vis-a-vis in the struggle against the
> Dictatorship.
> >
> > Prior to the farce that became the by-elections of
> > Baddibu and Kiang, Brother
> > KB and i raised the flag in the inconsistency
> > inherent in challenging the
> > legitimacy of Roberts and on the other hand go
> ahead
> > and contest by-elections
> > administered by the very person whose chairmanship
> > they deem as illegal. This
> > we argued then was going to TACITLY legitimise
> > Roberts and in the long-haul
> > of electoral political positioning in the run up
> to
> > the 2001 elections, make
> > the UDP lose its moral ground. Sadly, such
> > constructive strictures fell on
> > deaf ears as with most critical strictures that we
> > have served to them. As it
> > happened, the UDP contested the said by-elections
> > and the "results" left much
> > to be desired for - to  the chagrin and
> > embarrassment of the party
> > leadership. As it is, the legitimacy question that
> > was surrounding Roberts -
> > at least in practical legal terms - is virtually
> > non-existent because Roberts
> > has been legitimised ironically by two of the same
> > parties contesting his
> > legitimacy: the UDP and the NRP which campaigned
> > honorably alongside the UDP
> > during the by-elections. This is all thanks to the
> > ripples of arrogance that
> > one sometimes can't help in detecting coming from
> > the UDP direction. This,
> > most certainly won't help their case in the fight
> > against the Dictatorship.
> > It shan't help in courting floating voters who
> under
> > normal circumstances
> > would not vote for the UDP but would choose to do
> so
> > now for purely tactical
> > reasons. Needless to point out that the UDP's
> > current lack of political
> > muscle to make certain manoeuvering and moral
> > predicatment or dilemma, is
> > largely their own making.
> >
> >  Aside, there is also the issue of engaging those
> > who share their concerns
> > about the Gambia but do not fully get the picture
> of
> > where the UDP is coming
> > from. In my opinion, they need to do more in
> > demarcating facts from fictions
> > surrounding their alternative programme to the
> APRC
> > and their underpinning
> > political philosophy.  Criticising the worst
> > excesses of Jammeh and or the
> > APRC doesn't by itself constitute a clear
> > demarcation of where the UDP stands
> > on the crucial issues and where it wants to take
> the
> > Gambia if it does end up
> > winning the mandate to govern. To break free from
> > this political tight corner
> > will need a more humbler but resolute reading of
> the
> > political make-over the
> > Gambian polity has undergone since the
> by-elections.
> > Above all, they must
> > learn to take on board such constructive
> strictures
> > that will aid them in the
> > struggle against the Dictatorship. The tragedy
> that
> > continues to grip the
> > Gambian peoples and their society sustained by a
> > gang of philistines and
> > hustling adventurers CANNOT be held back by one
> > single block of political
> > interest. It calls for, above all, the unifying
> > umbrella of the Gambian
> > collective conscience. Yaya Jammeh is not a UDP,
> NRP
> > or PDOIS problem but a
> > Gambian problem that can only be effectively
> > disarmed by a Gambian collective
> > action and conscience. The sooner we realise the
> > futility of partisan ad
> > hominem bickering in the status-quo and see the
> > beauty in coalescing the
> > Gambian family in the struggle to bring back
> Gambian
> > decency and tolerance in
> > that country, the better for all of us. Arrogance
> > and self-importance has no
> > place in collective action. And in the event, it
> > must ridiculed and placed in
> > the back burners of  the dreary routinized times
> of
> > normal partisan
> > self-gratification and selfish interest where it
> is
> > less expensive and
> > largely dispensable.
> >
> > The times that we live in are such that no one
> > single party can effectively
> > disarm the lethal-ness of the tyranny that
> continues
> > to hold the Gambian
> > peoples hostage. The times require a modicum of
> > political expediency and or
> > prudence  the extent  of which requires the
> > marshalling of all shades of
> > opinion that share the same desire to see the back
> > of Jammeh but do not
> > necessarily agree with the UDP on most crucial
> bread
> > and butter issues of
> > social, political and economic significance. In
> case
> > people reminding, the
> > Zeitgeist of our times is not the narrow partisan
> > political interests of one
> > party but the Realpolitik of taking the bull by
> the
> > horns and recognising the
> > need for accomodating views that do not
> necessarily
> > reconcile with that of
> > others.
> >
> > Coming out as it did in saying that it shall
> contest
> > the Kiang East results
> > after officially - at least in an implicit
> Orwellian
> > double-talk - that the
> > by-elections fared relatively well and in fact
> > alluded a clean bill of health
> > to the by-elections, surely exposes that something
> > is fundamentally amiss in
> > the messages the UDP occasionally sends out. I
> hope
> > they realise that a
> > political opposition that lays such claims to
> being
> > ready to be mandated for
> > election to the highest political office in the
> land
> > should be ahead of its
> > times and judiciously endeavour to demarcate all
> > fictions, doubts and vile
> > rumours from the reality of its ethos, programmes
> > and what it ultimately
> > seeks to achieve for the Gambian peoples.
> >
>
=== message truncated ===


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