Mr Touray:
These are  very serious allegations. If you are going to question the PDOIS
Executive's integrity, you should at least advance some facts to back up
your allegations. I am puzzled as to how your headline is about ''analysis
of events leading to 1996 elections'' then you proceeded castigate the PDOIS
Executive. Please read on

*My humble analysis of events leading to 1996 elections.*

**

Following the military coup of 1994 a Draft Constitution was drawn for
Gambians to approve. Many at the time had no idea about the vital contents
of the document under review. During that void period of ignorance and
uncertainty the Executive of PDOIS went about canvassing for people to
endorse by a 'Yes' vote. With expectations that PDOIS Executive knew what
was at stake, majority of Gambians naively voted in favour of a totally
bastardised Constitution.


The fact that term limits was not included in the FINAL DRAFT of the 1996
constitution has nothing to do with PDOIS. If PDOIS assessed the 1996
constitution to the best of their ability and found it to be a lesser of two
evils(decrees Vs. flawed constitution), then went on to canvass for
it, maybe you can question their judgement but not much else.



Vital elements of the draft Constitution had already been sliced out of it
and yet PDOIS political experts did not let Gambians know that. One such
important input of the Draft Constitution was about the Presidential Term
Limit. This was deliberately omitted and Gambians voted for a constitution
that was to give any sitting president a blank ticket for life rule.


To put things in perspective: the constitution did not contain term limits
previously and it's a bit unrealistic to expect that the A(F)PRC we come to
know (or most who came to power by force for that matter) would
have yielded to such demands. Term limits is the way froward, but only a
tiny minority of countries actually have it enshrined in
their constitutions.



It may be argued that though the military knew what they were doing by
intentionally deleting that good part of our nation's book of rules, it was
PDOIS Executives who confused Gambians more seriously.


Please tell me how PDOIS confused Gambians?!? Your this write up is very
thin on evidence.



The question remains as who to blame. There were good reasons why the
military deleted anything to do with Presidential term Limit. There were
better reasons why PSDOIS Executives decided to trick Gambians into voting
for a constitution that was totally flawed.


How did you come to the conclusion that PDOIS did trick people to vote yes?
And if so could you explain what they did wrong? The Military deleted the
term limits from the FINAL DRAFT yet you are looking for someone else to
blame.



The military at that time banned all political parties and believed the next
election was a ready beef to bite and chew. Executives of PDOIS thought it
was all in their favour being the only active political party operating in
total defiance of Military ban on all political parties.


May I remind you that Foroyaa is newspaper. Now can you back up your above
sentence with some evidence of how PDOIS was the only operational political
party at the time, and how they operated in defiance of the ban on all
political parties?



Elections came in 1996 and results showed PDOIS further down rejection lane.
Other parties could not heal the fatal wounds inflicted by the long spell of
ban that kept them away from genuine politics. Since then the political
atmosphere continues getting more and more imbalanced for any decent
politics in Gambia.


After wallowing in glee long enough, you might realise that in 1996 new
parties sprang up, there where old parties that morphed into new ones,  the
A(F)PRC had the power to influence the result no matter how people voted. So
this was a completely new terrain, your comparison is irrelevant.


For historical reflections, the Executive of PDOIS can now keep the crown
for leading Gambians towards a political doom.

This is suppose to be ''analysis of events leading to 1996 elections'', but
all you did is castigate PDOIS and not offer any shred of evidence to back
up your serious allegations.

Cheers,
E. Jah



>
>
> On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 7:45 PM, SUNTOU TOURAY <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
>
>> *My humble analysis of events leading to 1996 elections.*
>>
>> **
>>
>> Following the military coup of 1994 a Draft Constitution was drawn for
>> Gambians to approve. Many at the time had no idea about the vital contents
>> of the document under review. During that void period of ignorance and
>> uncertainty the Executive of PDOIS went about canvassing for people to
>> endorse by a 'Yes' vote. With expectations that PDOIS Executive knew what
>> was at stake, majority of Gambians naively voted in favour of a totally
>> bastardised Constitution.
>>
>>
>>
>> Vital elements of the draft Constitution had already been sliced out of it
>> and yet PDOIS political experts did not let Gambians know that. One such
>> important input of the Draft Constitution was about the Presidential Term
>> Limit. This was deliberately omitted and Gambians voted for a constitution
>> that was to give any sitting president a blank ticket for life rule.
>>
>>
>>
>> It may be argued that though the military knew what they were doing by
>> intentionally deleting that good part of our nation's book of rules, it was
>> PDOIS Executives who confused Gambians more seriously.
>>
>>
>>
>> The question remains as who to blame. There were good reasons why the
>> military deleted anything to do with Presidential term Limit. There were
>> better reasons why PSDOIS Executives decided to trick Gambians into voting
>> for a constitution that was totally flawed.
>>
>>
>>
>> The military at that time banned all political parties and believed the
>> next election was a ready beef to bite and chew. Executives of PDOIS thought
>> it was all in their favour being the only active political party operating
>> in total defiance of military ban on all political parties.
>>
>>
>>
>> Elections came in 1996 and results showed PDOIS further down rejection
>> lane. Other parties could not heal the fatal wounds inflicted by the long
>> spell of ban that kept them away from genuine politics. Since then the
>> political atmosphere continues getting more and more imbalanced for any
>> decent politics in Gambia.
>>
>>
>>
>> For historical reflections, the Executive of PDOIS can now keep the crown
>> for leading Gambians towards a political doom.
>>
>>
>>
>>
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