Manneh, as usual, I welcome your insightful comments and I take heed of your caution. I hasten though to inform you that my statement you quoted should by no means be seen as a wholesale endorsement of the IEC and Gabriel Roberts. I still have serious reservations about the man and the institution and I fervently believe that if Gabriel Roberts is NOT checked (in terms suggested by you and others in this forum), the man will steal the elections for Yaya like he did in 1996. I made the comment you quoted because I felt that the Opposition was going to do a good job of making it increasingly difficult for Roberts to steal the elections. I hope my earlier comments do NOT in anyway signal that the Opposition should sit on its laurels vis-à-vis Roberts and the IEC. After all, to my knowledge, the IEC have still NOT rescinded their unilateral decision to centralize the counting of the voted at 20 or so counting centers. The Opposition is still saddled with the problem of ballots being ambushed and tampered with as they are moved from polling stations to counting centers. I have also NOT heard word about how the certification process is going to be conducted. If Opposition representatives are NOT present when results are faxed to Roberts (at the IEC headquarters and NOT State House) then we have another problem in our hands. So, clearly, we still have some outstanding issues with Roberts. Having said that, I have confidence that the Opposition can fight for the people to put Gabriel Roberts straight. Like you, I also encourage Gambians to go out in record numbers and vote. Yaya and his cohorts also realize that it is getting increasingly difficult for Roberts to steal the elections. They know that the people are aware of their shenanigans and this time around we will NOT let Gabriel Roberts hand over the ‘victory’ to him. This is a matter of life and dead. When Yaya and his cohorts realized the increasing difficulty inherent in manipulating the results on election day, they resort to trying to manipulate the results through other means. That was the point I was trying to make. APRC now seek to manipulate the election by getting the Jola clique in the army led by Babucarr Jatta and Ousman Badgie to try and intimidate Gambians to accept bogus results declaring Yaya a victor. The people will NOT accept this either. As eloquently pointed out by fine men like Chongan and Colly, the rank and file in the military will NOT carry out illegal and diabolical orders from the likes of Babucarr Jatta that have a tribal agenda at work here. I hope the message will get to our fine men and women in uniform that they should NOT spill the blood of one single innocent Gambian just to perpetuate a tyrant like Yaya in power. I hope the Alliance take cue and talk to our military in an attempt to debunk the LIES being told by Babucarr Jatta. An Alliance government will restore legitimacy to the military and open doors to our soldiers that is currently closed because our current Dictatorship is ostracized by civilized countries. For example, because of the erratic behavior of vermin like Fatoumatta Jahumpa and Yaya, the soldiers in the country will no longer benefit from Sandhurst scholarships so long as Yaya is in power. As Colly pointed out, our soldiers will soon kiss good-bye to the peace-keeping missions they go to in order to supplement their incomes. Finally, I take this opportunity to thank Chongan for his pragmatic contributions. I am happy he laid it out to our men and women in uniform that they can carry out their duties and safeguard people’s human rights without having to carry out Yaya’s and Babucarr Jatta’s illegal orders. The will of the people must stand on October 19, 2001. Yaya has all but given up in this election. All the moron is doing now is going around dishing money to bribe voters. What he does not realize is that buying voters’ cards to disenfranchise people is one thing. Bribing people to vote for you is an entirely different thing. When people are in the lonely confines of their voting booths, they will remember how Yaya ordered the slaughter of our children and how he continues to steal from government coffers and enslave Gambians by making them destitute. Needless to say the inexperienced nonentities calling themselves APRC politicians have no clue how to get people to vote for them. Yaya is simply making promises people already know that he had made before and did NOT keep. APRC is intimidating ‘Alkalos’ to force villagers to attend APRC rallies. APRC thugs are attacking Opposition supporters to discourage them from participating in the election. The Jolas in Foni would NOT even allow Opposition Parties to hold rallies in Foni. But all these undemocratic moves from APRC and their supporters will NOT yield fruits for them on October 18, 2001. Gambians will repudiate Yaya when they are in their voting booths away from the intimidation and bribery. Gambians know that the APRC do NOT have plans to move us forward. They are all just a bunch of thugs that will NOT hesitate to slaughter defenseless children and empty government coffers. Manneh, thanks again for your contributions. KB >From: Lamin Manneh PF <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list ><[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: ATTACKS ON IEC AND PA ROBERTS-MR. DAMPHA >Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2001 13:11:47 -0700 > _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>> To view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>