Folks,

As the controversy over the selection process of the APRC party's prospective candidate for the mayoral elections does not seem to abate, I would like to give my own understanding of the whole thing based on the official reaction of the APRC party as published in The Daily Observer of Tuesday/Wednesday 2002. It is unfortunate that I gave away my copy and cannot therefore reproduce the article as was published.

According to the spokesman of the APRC selection committee, invitations were requested from propective candidates early last month to submit their names if they were interested in running for the post of Mayor. A deadline was set for aspiring candidates to make their interests known to the selection committee on before March 23rd, 2002. According to this spokeman, Samba faal, Manu Kumba and, if my memory serves me right, two others submitted their names before the expiry of the deadline. At the time, most APRC members in Banjul had unanimously rallied behind Samba Faal and as such Axi Gai did not want to contest the post against him.

Three days after the close of the submissions by interested prospective candidates, it was announced that Samba Faal had been appointed SOS for Youths and Sports. Many of his supporters were jubilant about his appointment while others thought that he should decline the offer and run for mayorship instead, in order to see through the programmes that he had started. What ever transpired in those days is not very clear. Rumour has it however that some of his adent supporters had appealed to him to politely turn down his SOS appointment and instead bid for the mayorship. Whatever convinced him not to decline his SOS appoinment is not known.

When it became clear that he was not going to decline the SOS offer, some members of the APRC who were not happy that Manu Kumba was prepared to contest against him started to look for an alternative candidate. It is rumoured that Mr. Gai was approached and after much reluctance, was convinced that he should accept the wishes of the very many Banjulians who wanted to send his name for nomination as an APRC candidate to the selection committee. This was done but the selection committe rejected their request to re-open the nomination process again saying that it would set a wrong precedence for the present and future nominations.

Meanwhile, the selection process through ballots took place and Manu Kumba came out the winner. This did not go down well with those who prefered Axi Gai to him. This is my understanding of the Banjul mayoral selection issue based on the APRC Banjul selection committes's spokesman and rumours around town. It is just unfortunate that the quantum website  was down during that time and the article could not be posted online as was printed. I might, but I am not promising, look for the official APRC version of events and post it to the L if the controversy continues.

Have a good day, Gassa.