Hamjatta,

I can't agree with you more on all the issues raised about ensuring  that
the will of the people prevail from the Presidential election and defending
this supreme verdict from being violated at all costs.
Towards this objective, i would reiterate on the inevitable need for
all-round 'perfect vigilance' by opposition party agents at all polling
stations throughout the voting day to prevent any planned election
malpractices or fraud from APRC operatives either intending to perpetratrate
such crimes on their own or in conjunction with IEC officials. The UDP-led
alliance in particular must through their polling agents satisfy themselves
ensure that APRC ballot boxes are completely empty of any 'stuffings' prior
to the commencement of voting at all polling stations. This reuirement will
deter pre-vote rigging by the APRC which is confirmed to have been
ochestrated in some constituencies of the CRD during the last presidential
election.  As i gathered from a well-placed reliable source post the
previous Presidential election, the most significant aspect of vote- rigging
that occured in that instance was during the transportation of the
supposedly sealed ballots by the security forces to the various counting
centers at night time. In the CRD, upon the orders of the notorious
ex-AFPRC/APRC Commissioner; Major Bojang only handpicked security forces
were allowed to exclusively escort ballot boxes to the counting centers.
Some UDP party agents who rightly suspected plans of ballot tampering
insisted upon accompanying the security forces, but were either prevented
from doing so or even worst detained. The details of all such foul exercises
are vividly catalogued as confirmed violations against the popular will.
Unfortunately for us, some of our so-called security forces as we all know,
are nothing short of Jammeh's personal zombies of death, tyranny and
persecution but someday soon they will all be brought to order and account,I
fervently hope. In essence, the security forces must not  on any account be
allowed to exclusively escort casted votes as that is a highly vulnerable
point for vote switching and tampering. The UDP leadership must insist on
this with the so-called IEC that the unfair practice will be unacceptable.
The expulsion of the British Deputy High Commissioner by the maniac APRC
regime was  partly intended to offset diplomatic relations with Britain in
order to undermine a fair electoral process in the Gambia.
I am saying so because Mr Joshi was very concerned to ensure that the vote
rigging that occured the last time was not allowed to happen again. In which
respect, he was the key advocate among diplomats for international support
to the Gambia's electoral apparatus and process. I only hope that the
international community will continue its support in this regard esp, with
election observers to the key constituencies.

The ultimate course open to us, if all the safeguards notwithstanding, fraud
is committed will be to chase the dictator and his hencmen away with all
available means and be assured that the masses are prepared to do just that.

The yoke of oppression must be shattered!

BMK

>From: Hamjatta Kanteh <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Ensuring & Defending An Alliance Victory On October 19th
>Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2001 14:55:32 EDT
>
>The greatest obstacle that will impede us or in all likely-hood stands a
>very
>chance of scuppering victory from us is in the event of an Alliance
>electoral
>routing of the APRC, people have not devised mechanisms to defend and
>maintain their hard won victory. Given that we now know for certain the
>lengths the APRC will go - in cahoots with Roberts and the IEC - to steal
>the
>elections, the task no longer is just courting and making sure voters come
>out en masse and vote; and vote en masse for the Alliance. The task that
>lies
>ahead is of a two-pronged nature. One, we still need to court both floating
>and APRC voters to vote for the Alliance whilst our core voters are not in
>any form or shape isolated. Second - and this is becoming increasingly
>crucial for an eventual routing of the dictatorship - is the need to
>protect
>and defend ALL our votes and or ALL those votes casted for us. This  final
>point may end up deciding the fate of the Gambia on October 19th 2001.
>
>Herein, and broadly speaking, there are two ways to go about with this
>proposition, given the exigency and the constraints they most certainly
>will
>shackle our legs with should we opt for something far more comprehensive
>and
>difficult to implement. Let me then lay down the first principle of this
>propsition and its concomitant action plan. A sure-fire way to beat a cheat
>is to shadow him relentlessly and around the clock; and stop him in his
>tracks where and whenever he is at it. Indeed, as Burke commented in his
>"Reflections on the Revolution in France", "he that wrestles with us
>strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our
>helper." To the extent that Burke is right, to stop the anticipated massive
>electoral fraud of the APRC in cahoots with Roberts and IEC, we must match
>their unethical shenanigans with a relentless advocacy against Jammeh and
>all
>that he stands for; and if they can't take the heat and resort to physical
>intimidation, we must be prepared to take it up with them as far as they
>are
>ready to go. To paraphrase Burke, our APRC antagonists are our helpers
>herein: they choose battle a ground, we will meet them there. Nothing stops
>a
>bully in his tracks than the message that you are no longer prepared to
>take
>it lying down. An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. Each life is
>precious, and the greatest liberty defendable is the right to life. To this
>extent we will be reacting appropriately to any attempts by antagonists to
>stop us in our tracks, whilst we are exercising our God-given and
>inviolable
>rights to be part of the shaping of our country's destiny.
>
>If the first principle and its concomitant action plan is reactive, then
>the
>second principle is proactive. Because through mainly instinctual
>premonition
>and generally based on past experience, we know for a fact that the APRC
>will
>do its damndest to steal the elections as they certainly did in 1996. To
>prevent another re-run of that scenario, we need to strategise on a scale
>that either narrows down the effects of electoral fraud on the out come of
>the elections. Or in the extreme, strategise on a scale that will totally
>prevent electoral fraud - be it tampering with votes directly or indirectly
>by inducing and or intimidating voters with carrots and sticks. I'm not
>sure
>about totally ensuring a fraud-free elections; but by looking at all
>possible
>scenarios and strategising in lieu of that, we stand a very good chance of
>reducing the degree to which the outcome of the election can be illegally
>influenced. The principle that undergirds this is eternal and relentless
>vigilance. We must strategise as if  there is no "D-Day". Wherein, we never
>lower our guards and continually look over our shoulders for would-be
>assailants and perpetrators of electoral fraud. To make this point stick,
>the
>Alliance leadership must lace it's rhetoric at all rallies with a strong
>counselling that the liberties of the citizenry are in the hands of the
>citizenry itself; none can safe-guard better what is closest to you and
>with
>you all the time. To this end, our votes are our liberty vouchers: none can
>safe-guard better for any given individual their votes from being illegally
>tampered with - be it through inducements or intimidations - than the
>individuals themselves. To sloganize it, or craft a bumper sticker for it,
>our votes are our bus/airplane tickets to freedom. To get on that
>bus/airplane on October 19, each has a solemn responsibility in
>safe-guarding
>your ticket.
>
>Crucial to the safe-guarding of our votes is when we know we've won the
>elections and the IEC in cahoots with Jammeh starts plan games with us.
>There
>and then, we move to final battle ground: the streets of all the urban
>areas.
>We must go into the streets ala the Serbian and Ivorien way when they
>respectively gave Milosevic and General Guei their matching orders in
>massive
>civil disobedience. Knowing Jammeh as i do, all my political instincts tell
>me that ultimately this where history will decide the Gambia and the
>Gambian
>people's fate. How we conduct ourselves in this battle will be much like
>"D-Day" during the Second World War. If October 18 is the denouement of our
>struggle against Jammeh, then October 19 is what makes or breaks it.
>Alliance
>leaders must be ready to take the bull by the horns and with the Leviathan
>muscle of the people behind them, they are assured of victory. If history
>is
>our guide, no dictatorship willingly gives up after losing the support of
>the
>masses; rather, they only give up power when life is made unbearable for
>them
>and those that seek to perpetuate them. So it is not just votes that will
>decide our fate as a people on October 19; but the extent to which we are
>ready to play by the rules of history, i.e., meeting with it and changing
>its
>course.
>
>Karl Marx was wrong about alot of things - almost everything he wrote has
>virtually been repudiated. Certainly, one dictum of his remains relevant
>and
>even his most vociferous critics like to cite it, especially when
>choreographing parallels in historical dramas. In his "The Eighteenth
>Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte", Marx lucidly commented:
>
>"Hegel says somewhere that all great events and personalities in the world
>reappear in one fashion or another. He forgot to add: the first time as
>tragedy, and the second as farce."
>
>The manner in which Jammeh and Roberts stole the 1996 presidential
>elections
>and how they got away with it certainly was a tragedy. To let a repeat of
>1996 electoral fraud would not be a tragedy; but a horrendous farce that
>will
>forever haunt Gambians - present and future. To avoid turning October 19th
>into another historical farce, we must not - to paraphrase President Bush -
>relent, yield and rest until those who have wronged us give back to us what
>they have taken from us: our liberties and freedoms. This is the sure-fire
>way to ensure and defend an Alliance victory on October 19th 2001.
>
>Hamjatta Kanteh
>
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