Now that Gabriel Roberts has unashamedly acknowledged in public that he is
impotent, the little confidence the Opposition Parties reposed on him has
been compromised. Clearly this man cannot be trusted to do what is right in
the coming elections. If this nonentity continues to run the show at the
IEC, the Opposition Parties should NOT even continue to meet with him. What
man with influence will agree one thing with the Parties, and then renege on
his word the moment he talks to Yaya and Yaya offers a contrary view?

Can this man be trusted on Election Day to announce results that would show
that Yaya lost the elections? Ten-year-old Gambians know that Gabriel
Roberts will NOT do that. To facilitate their task to rig the elections,
they (APRC and Roberts) want to centralize the vote counting. That way
ballot boxes can be tampered with as they are moved from polling stations to
regional centers where the votes should be counted. Centralizing the
counting will also ensure that fewer people will have to be corrupted in
order to announce bogus results for Yaya.

The shenanigans of these vermin is so transparent that it is laughable. The
Opposition Parties did good by walking out on the APRC crony. He is at his
position for one reason only: to RIG elections for Yaya. As a follow-up, the
Parties should refuse to deal with Roberts until everyone is convinced that
the man is potent. If he has to clear every significant decision with Yaya,
then why deal with the nonentity? Let us go straight to Yaya and deal with
him. Dealing with Gabriel Roberts just adds 'legitimacy' to the whole
process and makes things appear as if we are in a democratic environment.
This is a Dictatorship where Yaya is the only one making the major
decisions.

Let us not compromise on this issue. If the votes are not counted at the
polling stations, then we should not participate in the elections. If
Gabriel Roberts continues in this cronyism, we should not participate in the
elections. Do people think that on Election Day if Gabriel Roberts goes to
Yaya to 'clear' the results, Yaya will 'allow' Roberts to declare results
that will say that Yaya lost? To show that he is indeed independent of Yaya,
Roberts has to deliver on this 'vote counting' issue and other vital issues
affecting the campaigns (such as media access). Roberts also has to address
the 'challenges' to the voter registers.

If Roberts does NOT address these matters favorably, the Opposition should
boycott the elections and prepare their supporters to go and flush Yaya out
of the State House when his mandate expires in October.
KB

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