FOROYAA Newspaper Burning Issue
Issue No. 81/2006, 26 - 26 September,  2006

EDITORIAL

THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF AN ERA IN GAMBIAN POLITICS

It is an irony that the APRC regime changed the constitution to eradicate  
the second round of voting because of the fear that it could not get 50% of the  
votes cast in the first round. Now it is said to have won 67% of the votes in 
 the first round. 
What is responsible for this?
In the 2001 Presidential  elections President Jammeh has 242,304 votes. 
Despite the fact that 94,000  voters were added in the register in 2006 alone he 
has managed to increase his  popular vote by 22,000 to 264,473.
Needless to say, the Register of voters  now contains 670,336 voters. 
However, only 392, 685 voters voted.
NADD had  23,473 votes which constitutes 6% of the votes.
Despite the support of the  NRP and GPDP the UDP vote declined from 149,448 
votes in 2001 to 104,808 votes  in 2006. This tends to give the impression that 
UDP could not serve as a  vanguard for all the other parties to unite around 
to dislodge Jammeh. 
It is  now time for opposition parties to go back to the drawing board.
It is very  clear from the results that the voters were concentrating on UDP 
and APRC. In  their campaign the UDP emphasized that if the voters in the 
opposition cast  their vote for NADD they are casting it for the APRC meaning that 
they will help  the APRC to win. The APRC also told their supporters that if 
they cast their  votes for NADD they will help the UDP to win. Now that NADD 
had only 6 percent  of the votes it could not serve as a decisive factor on 
either side. Hence one  cannot say the NADD vote prevented the UDP from winning 
the elections. The  Gambian people should now begin to look for a new 
instrument to be able to bring  about change. The old instrument has proven to be 
ineffective.
This is a time  for people to identify a sober leadership among the 
opposition to unite around  to give direction and significance to opposition politics 
and move away from  tribally motivated  notions.

ANOTHER FIVE YEARS FOR JAMMEH
By Baboucarr Ceesay

Gambians went to the poll on Friday, 22nd September 2006 to decide who to  
entrust with their sovereign power to preside over the affairs of this  country.
As the third Presidential election under the Second Republic, this  election 
is one of the most talked about red letters day of the year. The three  
aspirants for presidency were Mr. Halifa Sallah of the National Alliance for  
Democracy and Development (NADD), Lawyer Ousainou Darboe of United Democratic  Party 
(UDP) and the incumbent Yahya Jammeh of the Alliance for Patriotic  
Re-Orientation and Construction (APRC).
Voting commenced at 7.00 am. During  the electoral process, reports reached 
Foroyaa that the Electoral Codes of  conduct in certain areas are breached. 
This reporter went to the Senegambia  Garage in Dippa Kunda to investigate the 
matter and he found a man  who  seemed to be in his 60s and a young woman 
(confirmed to be APRC members) were  sitting near polling station B100 as if they 
have an influential role to play in  the casting of votes by the electorate. A 
party agent intervened, but the man  resisted until the NADD patrol team 
arrived and convinced him of the  unconstitutionality of his presence on the voting 
ground. He said that he was  waiting for his party chairman and ‘Yai compins’ 
to meet him on the ground; that  he was the one who provided chairs for the 
polling staff. But the young woman in  accompany cunningly vacated the premises 
whilst the man kept a distance away  from the polling station. 
At this juncture, the police officers at the  polling station in 
collaboration with the Presiding Officer started to prevent  people hanging or loitering 
around the polling station.
In a similar case, a  van wagon, Mercedes Benz numbered BJL 4905 D was found 
parked at a junction  between polling station B98 and B99in Dippa Kunda with 
an APRC flag. The flag  was untied from the mirror of the transport upon the 
intervention of the NADD  vigilant patrol team.   
However, voting went smoothly in Farato  and Brikama despite apparent signs 
of voters apathy. There was a low turn out of  voters in polling station like 
C162A Brikama Neema Geebungoto, C62 Brikama Neema  Geebungoto IEC and C163 
Brikama Neemataba Girl Guides Center. In some stations  there were few or 
virtually no person in queues before Friday Prayers. 
This  reporter met four young women on the way from Brikama Gidda Bantaba 
polling  station C165A. These young women were loudly complaining about threats 
made by  the President during the campaign. When interrupted with questions by 
our  reporter they all indicated that they are definitely intimidated by the  
statements that the head of state made during the campaign that neither coup  d
’etat nor election can unseat him. The most out spoken woman among them (name 
 withheld) said that her parents did not vote and advised her not to vote 
because  Jammeh is capable of creating chaos in the country if he should loose 
his  seat.
“Let’s leave the sleeping dog to lie; no matter what, let there be  peace, 
if we can manage to survive the situation,” she melancholically remarked.  
In Gunjur and Brufut during the voting the atmosphere was normal and  
tranquil and voter turnout was considerably better. A presiding officer in a  certain 
polling station in Gunjur revealed that there are several people whose  names 
were neither in the counter foil nor in the voters list but hold voters  
cards and were all rejected by his polling staff.
Foroyaa went to station C44  and C45 at Kafuta at around 3.40pm shortly 
before the curtain of the election  was drawn but voters only turn up at random and 
always in small numbers. The  presiding officers said that the turnout was 
better only in the morning.
When  the ballot drums were sealed at 4.00pm, this reporter went to the 
counting  center for Kombo East at the Baffrow complex in Mandinaba. Counting 
started at  eleven to 2.00pm. Though the counting was transparent but the security  
outnumbered the people at the counting center.
At the end of the whole  electoral process Yahya Jammeh of APRC scored 
264,404, Ousainou Darboe of  UDP/NRP/GPDP alliance scored 104,808 and Halifa Sallah 
of NADD polled 23,473.  President Jammeh got a 67.3 of the total number of 
votes  cast.

DARBOE REJECTS ELECTION RESULTS

Ousainou Darboe, the leader of the UDP, has rejected the result of the  
presidential election.
In an interview with the Focus on Africa on Sunday,  Mr. Darboe said that one 
of the APRC National Assembly members had signed a  document on behalf of a 
returning officer in one of the constituencies up  country.
Mr. Darboe said, “The military presence was very prominent. Some of  them 
were well armed. All these were intimidating factors. We do not really  think 
that the IEC was really in charge of the process.”
As to what his next  move will be, Mr Darboe said the Executive Committee of 
his party will meet and  take a decision on the issue, pointing out that the 
decision could be legal or  political.
The journalist further put it to Mr Darboe that the opposition was  
fragmented and that is why he did not make an impact on the election.
He  remarked, “That would have been a valid statement if the NADD had also 
polled a  considerable number of votes, but that is not the case. I have always 
maintained  that a united front is meaningless without a level playing field. 
However united  we would have been, the results would have been the same thing.
”
The  journalist further told Mr Darboe that he had contested three times and 
lost  three times and each time he complained of flaws. He asked him (Darboe) 
whether  people would take him seriously. Mr Darboe retorted: “Those people 
who the  situation in The Gambia will take me seriously, but those who do not 
the  situation in The Gambia will not take me seriously. Those who support the 
APRC  will also not take me seriously. The 1996 election was not condemned by 
me  alone. It was condemned by the whole international community. It was wrong 
to  say that I am merely complaining. In 2001 I didn’t complain. In fact, I  
congratulated the President, although subsequently I discovered that there were 
 some flaws. This year I am complaining because I have reasons to  complain.”

HALIFA ON VOTER APATHY

A journalist working for the BBC Focus on Africa programme, yesterday  
interviewed Halifa Sallah on the outcome of the presidential election.
Halifa  Sallah said, “We are seeing voter apathy. We are gathered to find out 
what was  responsible for that. We have seen that President Jammeh has 
received over  264,000 votes and the votes of the main opposition candidate who 
contested the  last election is about 104,000 which is a drop from what has been 
received in  the past election from Mr Darboe.”
Halifa posited: “We need to get an  instrument to prevent voter apathy and to 
get votes from President Jammeh.  Jammeh had managed during his campaign to 
show that he is a power that cannot be  removed. If you look at the campaign, 
it was an issue of liberation. It is that  type of mentality we must remove 
from the people.”

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