Mr Darboe,
Thanks for your comments.  You are right that the statements I forwarded
yesterday were my opinion.  I want to assure you that I am in no way
attempting to convince you or anyone for that matter that my statements
were the only/whole truth regarding the formation of the coalition, the
campaign styles, and the eventual outcome of the election.

My whole understanding of this site is that it is a cyber bantaba where we
all can pitch in our observations/opinions so that people can make logical
but reasonable conclusions on their own.  The statements that I made were
events that I witnessed myself or I heard from credible sources who felt
comfortable during my discussions with them.  I am a private citizen with
no direct attachment to any political organization in the Gambia even
though I sympathized one of them the most during the election.  Everything
I said is not meant to sway you one way or another, but rather to give you
a perspective of what a significant amount of Gambians felt during the
campaign.  It will be futile to tell you now who said what/where and when,
but all decent Gambians who attended the political rallies of both the PPP
and UDP knew that they were both acting rather unprofessionally.  Even if
we disagree in public, deep down within each of us, we know what the truth
is, what transpired during the election, and which characters were
outstanding.

Whether UDP was bankrolled by the PPP may not be proven by me or you, but
we all know that their relationship has been ongoing way before the
amalgamation of the two.  I have a lot of respect for Darboe and some of
his colleagues; but you sure know that a lot of people including myself
were very suspicious of some former PPP members.   If you have been to UDP
campaigns after the formation of the coalition, you sure will be suspicious
of some characters who were really running the show behind the scenes.

Maybe if PPP did not try to influence UDP that much, we may have a total
coalition of all the opposition parties.  If this were the case, the
coalition would have garnered 47+ percent of the votes, perhaps one could
have contested the outcome.  We may disagree on this one, but I am very
convince that UDP was very dependent on the PPP and that was the main
reason why they could not forge a relationship with the other parties.  I
could not question the decision by the UDP leadership in the past to stay
with the PPP, but today I can point a finger at their decision (which they
thought was the best at the time) and say it was a miscalculation that
perhaps caused them a lot.

Finally, I disagree with you on PDOIS.  We may disagree with some of their
economic and social policies but they were by far the most responsible,
open, and professional party we have witnessed during the election.  Once
again, this are my opinions based on what I witnessed and heard from
Gambians on the ground, and nothing more.

Ramadan greetings to you, Darboe Julla!

Cheers
Mariatou

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