If I remember right, some time towards the middle of July 2000, a gentleman by the name of Lamin Manneh PF sent G_L some interesting postings about the electoral process in Gambia. There ensued some exchanges between Manneh, Ebrima's Sources, Goswell, Jassey-Conteh and myself (if my recollection serves me right). During those debates, I opined that it was my fervent hope that politicians engage people like Manneh and learn about the loopholes in the system that Yaya and his cronies might wish to exploit at the expense of the Opposition. I renew those calls and reiterate that the Opposition have to ensure that they keep these seats by any means necessary. The shenanigans have already began. As confirmed by Britain's Deputy High Commissioner in Banjul, the IEC is planning to transport ballot boxes away from polling stations even before the votes are counted. This, we should not tolerate. If Roberts wants to deliver the elections to Yaya on a plate, Roberts has to be prepared to pay with his life. The Opposition should not take this abuse from an impotent like Yaya. I hope the Opposition is already in the constituency putting their point across. Yaya and his cohorts do not have anything to offer us. Gambia depends on grants and loans to embark on any development project. Yaya, by turning our country to a pariah state, diminished our ability to get money from abroad and help our people get ahead. I read lies from Yankuba Touray blaming the PPP regime for the plight of our farmers. This just shows that these people are not to be taken seriously. Six years after they stole power from PPP, they are still using PPP as their excuse for their (AFPRC/APRC) dismal performance. No one should be blamed for the state of our farmers except Baba Jobe and Yaya. Thanks to these morons, EU money ($12 million) that could have gone to poor Gambian taxpayers, is being paid to Alimenta. This very government, hoodwinked by Baba Jobe and his hustler friends from Libya, cooked up stories about Alimenta and drove Alimenta from the country. If what the government was doing was right, how come they are the ones compensating Alimenta now? These people do not know what they are doing. They can only run on lies and intimidation. If they are not lying to the farmers, they are telling them that if Yaya is defeated, the soldiers will bring chaos to the country. We should not buy into these blackmail tactics either. I keep reminding people about what happened during the ambush at Basse. When force met force, it was an APRC supporter that lost his life. These people are cowards. If we stand our ground, they will run away. We should not also allow them to run against PPP. That party does not exist any more. The current Opposition should not allow Yaya and his cohorts to convince our people that the Opposition will take us back to the Jawara days. If anything, APRC has taken us to the Jawara days and worst. They are the ones using PPP ministers as candidates and 'mobilizers'. The Opposition have to expose these blatant lies. When Yaya was guarding Jawara and sneaking to people's offices telling on his fellow soldiers, Ousainou Darboe was busy earning a living in the private sector. People like Halifa Sallah and Sidia Jatta were also not part of the establishment by any stretch of the imagination. So, why should we allow a moron that depended on soldier uniforms to put cloths behind his back, now turn around and pretend that he was an outsider and Darboe, Sallah and Jatta were part of the establishment and would bring back the bleak PPP days? All these nonentities depended on taxpayers' money for their living during the PPP regime. They benefited more from PPP than most of us. Buba Baldeh and Ousainou Darboe, who is more PPP? Dr. Saho and Hamat Bah, who is more PPP? UDP should not allow these vermin to paint them as the defunct PPP. Yaya and his cohorts should be forced to talk about their agenda and their dismal record and stop these lies about PPP. The independent media should take them to task. The Opposition has to be very aggressive in countering the misinformation that is coming from Observer and other government controlled media. I also hope that the Opposition read into what APRC is trying to do with Dr. Saho. Everyone is denying the story because they do not want the Opposition to start pouncing on Saho. They want to wait until the last moment and bring Saho out and then give the Opposition little time to lay out Saho's record before the voters. I respectfully urge the Opposition to run against anyone that is mentioned for the APRC ticket. If Saho does not want to be associated with the APRC, he should come out and say that he does not support the party. Otherwise, he is fair game and the Opposition can talk about Saho's record with some of our donors and potential investors that came to The Gambia during the PPP regime. This election is very important. We should not tolerate any foul play. If the elections is free and fair, UDP should recapture those seats. KB _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------