The people of URD had clearly and outwardly demonstrated their ardent support for the opposition parties during the last presidential election . What were the reasons behind this and can we deploy the same strategies in the Kombos and elsewhere to get almost all the seats in the forthcoming National Assembly election? The strategy in the URD works very well for the oppositions especially UDP. Instead of following the campaign trail of UDP, big wing militants and opinion leaders of Basse concentrated in their respective influential areas and native villages to expose the appalling realities of an APRC government. Former popular politicians and civil servants from the families of N'jie, Sey, Tambedou, Cham, Camara, Sighateh, Jallow, just to mention a few, work relentlessly to get every single vote in URD. They don't have to conduct mass and flamboyant rallies but a tedious and effective one on one campaign. This really pays dividend because a person/community centered campaign will ensure an effective delivery of message and a better accomplishment of goals. In the bedrooms, compound grounds and at the Bantabas, these folks talk about every single tyranny perpetuated by the APRC regime-from student killings to high inflations, restrictions on traveling to the buying of groundnuts, human right abuses and the rule of law etc. In the Komboes, where is our opinion leaders and former influential political figures? They were either quite or supporting APRC. The only person i had speaking on UDP's platform was Alh. Dembo Jatta. One other thing that contributed to an opposition victory in Basse was the immense contribution and influence of the Diaspora. I heard one single man was able to convince the whole village to vote for UDP. Can we the Kombonkas in the diaspora emulate these Basse "semesters" or "malang-o"? I will continue my election analysis. Cheers Lamin PF Manneh _________________________________________________________________ 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 To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>