UDP  has built a reputation for complaining about the many abhorrent deeds
of the APRC government rather  than trying to be proactive in dealing with
the many challenges it faces as the largest opposition party in the country.
In the Nov 19 edition of the Observer, it was reported that the UDP
propaganda secretary condemned the IEC for masterminding the Jammeh victory
last month, and called for the resignation of the chairman of the
commission, Mr. Roberts. This may all be okay for a relatively young
opposition party, even after the party leader had conceded defeat and
congratulated the victor, now suspected to be a thief by another key party
functionary. The party's conflicting reactions to the October election
reflect some serious weaknesses about this party's leadership. Where were
they when the IEC was registering people and adding their names to the
Register after the official registration period (all of which they knew
about before hand)? Where were the party's pooling agents when people with
voters cards not entered in the main voter register appeared at their
stations to vote? On the latter, all we know was that the agents sanctioned
the results in their respective locations. In fact it was reported that UDP
had no agent in one of the Serre Kunda constituencies (very bizarre!) .

UDP/coalition as a party should have decided to either accept or reject the
election the results. Doing both at the same time is comical at best.

The coming Parliamentsry elections would be another test case for the
leading opposition party that seems to be good at complaining about
electoral atrocities after the fact rather than being steadfast in a
proactive manner.

AT



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