Although I do not wish to put the proponents of elections in the Gambia on
the spot, I think it is only fair that we expect a reaction from them
regarding the indefinite postponement of the Local Government elections and
the announcement of the ground rules governing the Sami Chieftaincy
elections. I have been anxiously waiting for the past few days for postings
attacking the IEC for this latest fraud. That Johnson character at the IEC
was upset a few days ago because people were speculating that the Local
Government elections will be postponed. Now the same man was forced to
announce what most Gambians saw coming long time ago. It is amazing that the
announcement was made at the prompting of a journalist's question. So if the
journalist had not raised the question, the IEC would still be leaving the
gullible Gambians in the dark. Even after this impostor had the audacity to
announce that the elections were postponed, people did not challenge him to
swallow his words when he said the other day that plenty can happen in two
months; implying that it was irresponsible for people to speculate that the
elections will not take place. This man knew all along that the elections
will not take place so long as the APRC was not guaranteed an easy victory.
He nevertheless took that arrogant air of his to numerous forums and
continue to pretend that everything was fine and there will be elections. If
anyone thinks that this man is impartial and capable, after his despicable
behavior, that person must be living in another planet. The flip-flop
committed in this case is inexcusable. We read into his crafty shenanigans
from day one when he announced the elections dates and made it conditional
on our lame-duck parliament passing some piece of legislation. In my
opinion, this man is either very stupid or very corrupt. In any case, he has
no business participating in elections in the capacity he currently holds.
The opposition should agitate for his removal. He would wait for legislation
to set the dates for the Local Government elections, but he would not wait
for legislation to come up with those ridiculous rules governing the Sami
Chieftaincy elections. As I understand it, both the statute books and court
rulings are silent as to whether the Sami elections should be conducted on a
partisan basis. So how on earth did this man come up with a rule saying that
political parties should not field candidates for that elections? And that
political parties cannot campaign for the candidates participating in that
elections? What is more puzzling is that the opposition parties back home
seemed to be content with this state of affairs. Proponents of elections on
G_L also seem to be happy with this latest debacle. Apart from reports that
UDP is calling for a tax boycott, I have not heard any denunciation of these
draconian arrangements. This is outrageous. Is this the same type of silence
we are going to experience come next year and there is no presidential
elections. The government unilaterally postponed a crucial election and what
do we have from the opposition? Total muteness. APRC might as well just go
ahead and appoint a chief for Sami. The sham that is going to take place on
November 16 is a total waste of resources. July 22nd Movement thugs have
already stacked the deck against none APRC supporters. So de facto, APRC is
conducting a campaign. What these stupid rules from the IEC  are just legal
niceties to exclude opponents of the July 22nd Movement. At the very least,
this Johnson fellow from the IEC has to be forced to explain where he came
up with these rules that are going to govern the Sami elections.
The opposition leaders have to take over the agenda and mobilize their bases
to challenge every move of this illegal regime we have back home. They
should not just talk about a tax revolt. They should put structures in place
to implement that strategy. Lead the revolts yourself and be prepared to go
to jail for your refusal to pay taxes. If ordinary Gambians know that the
opposition has a genuine plan to rally around, they will come out and
support the opposition. It is incomprehensible that some of these things are
going on in the country right before the eyes of people that are capable of
doing something about it. We should be consistent in our attack of the
dictatorship. We must not send them wrong signals by applauding some of
their cosmetic changes. That is the only way we can lead people to rise up
against Yaya. I have to say that the proponents of democracy and peaceful
change in the Gambia are not helping their cause by not speaking up against
injustices such as those that visited us this week.
KB
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