Mr. Dampha, it is a good idea that the political parties have representatives at IEC headquaters to scrutinised results as they come in and the IEC chairman must be with this group throughout the counting period. This team should have direct contact with all the counting centers and their agents and signatures of all counting agents, Returning officers and Assistant Returning Officers must be available for verification. This will ensure that the results coming from the counting centers are the ones being announced and that the Chairman is not hiding somewhere endorsing false results.
Thanks for your insights and fervent desire to bring democratic change in The Gambia.
Lamin PF Manneh
>From: Dampha Kebba <
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>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list <
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>To:
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>Subject: Electoral Procedures --- Attn: PF Manneh
>Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2001 11:30:43 -0400
>
>Mr. Manneh, thanks once again for the clear rendition you gave of
>your
>experience with the electoral process during the last elections.
>Your
>insights are invaluable. As people like Bakary Kanteh have
>highlighted,
>there are tremendous problems inherent in the transportation of
>ballots from
>polling stations to counting centers. So, the Opposition must
>hand-combat
>Gabriel Roberts to ensure that he does NOT assist Yaya in his
>dubious
>enterprise to steal the elections. We MUST ask for counting
>on-the-spot.
>
>Once the ballots are counted, your narration of the certification
>also shows
>that there are loopholes that a dubious Gabriel Roberts in cahoots
>with Yaya
>and his cronies can take advantage of in order to steal the
>elections. The
>votes from Janjanbureh might have been announced just the way you
>sent them
>to the PIEC. But how about the votes from areas in CRD where Gabriel
>Roberts
>knew that some shenanigans already took place? Although you did NOT
>mention
>it, I would have thought that Party representatives would be at the
>IEC HQ
>as the faxes come in to ensure that the figures that were coming to
>the HQ
>tallied with the figures their representatives at the counting
>centers were
>giving them. If that is NOT the case, the Opposition MUST ensure
>that they
>have representatives with Gabriel Roberts at the IEC HQ (and NOT
>State
>House) as the faxes come in from the various counting centers.
>Before
>Gabriel Roberts is allowed to announce bogus results, Opposition
>representatives at the IEC HQ should liaise with their people in the
>constituencies to ensure that the figures sent through fax were the
>same
>ones the Returning Officers certified at the counting centers.
>
>If the Opposition are present with Gabriel Roberts at the IEC HQ as
>the
>faxes come in, then that also takes care of the problem we had in
>1996 about
>Gamtel routing faxes to State House. Under no circumstances should
>the
>Opposition trust despicable vermin like Gabriel Roberts with the
>fate of the
>Gambian people. We should be breathing on RobertsEneck this time
>around
>just like Yaya put a gun to the cowards head in 1996. The
>Opposition should
>ensure that the results Gabriel Roberts is going to announce reflect
>the
>will of the Gambian people in every sense. First and foremost we
>MUST ensure
>that the ballots are NOT transported from place to place as per
>Gabriel
>Roberts and Yayas (UNILATERAL) decision. Secondly, Opposition
>representatives have to be present at IEC HQ when the results come
>in from
>the counting centers. Manneh, I thank you once again for your
>invaluable
>contributions.
>
>Yaya is finished. The hundreds of thousands of Gambians that were
>disenfranchised in the last election of Decree 89 are now going to
>vote for
>the Alliance in droves. People do NOT attend APRC rallies and the
>vermin
>know that they lost the elections. Now their whole hopes are pinned
>on
>Gabriel Roberts and intimidating the ordinary Gambians. As we
>speak/write,
>Opposition stalwarts are being arrested willy-nilly. Their crime:
>they are
>refusing to attend APRC rallies.
>KB
>
>
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