Ladies and gentlemen, this waiting game is ridiculous by any standard. It is time the citizens demand that Pa Sallah Jeng and others assume office NOW, not some future date. Please read on. "What a Fool Does in the End, the Wise Man Does At the Beginning" the New Local Government Councils When Will They Assume Office? Email This Page Print This Page The Independent (Banjul) May 20, 2002 Posted to the web May 20, 2002 D. a Jawo Banjul It is now getting to one month since the local government elections were hurriedly organised by the Independent Electoral Commission, brushing aside all the appeals and concerns expressed by the general public, and yet still, the newly elected councils are yet to be inaugurated. One would therefore wonder why the IEC had insisted on going ahead with those hushed-up elections before the new Local Government Act had even been enacted, let alone be disseminated to the people to understand what they were voting for. There is no doubt that it was what eventually led to the boycott of the elections by certain political parties as well as the general lack of public interest in the process. To add to the confusion, the government also went ahead to introduce the Local Government Bill to the National Assembly for enactment with a certificate of urgency right in the middle of the process by the IEC to hold elections. The very fact that the National Assembly members were not given adequate time to study and digest the Bill, they had to briefly debate it and pass it with quite a lot of flaws and inconsistencies. Despite all that rush to get the Bill debated and passed and the IEC going ahead with the elections before all the necessary things were in place, the newly elected councils are still waiting to be inaugurated. One would therefore not fail to see the inconsistency between the rush in passing the Local Government Bill and the holding of the local government elections and the present situation we find ourselves in. We would therefore wonder why the rush and what is holding the inauguration of the new councils. Want to help this site win one of the "Oscars of the Internet"? allAfrica.com has been nominated Best News Site for a Webby Award You can cast your ballot - before June 7 - in the People's Voice category. Click here >> It appears that there is much more to this unprecedented delay in the inauguration of the new councils than meets the ordinary eye. According to rumours, the delay is apparently caused by the regime still trying to come to terms with the election of an opposition mayor for Banjul, which they never bargained for or even ever anticipated. Therefore, they may still be trying to work out a strategy as to how to deal with such an unusual situation. Rumours have it that the regime is weighing several options as to how to deal with the situation, which, according to the rumours, include a call by some of the hawks in the regime to refuse to recognise Pa Sallah Jeng as Mayor-elect for Banjul and to instead go ahead with the appointment of their own interim mayor until they could find a way out of the situation. That is indeed the craziest solution anyone could ever contemplate. While the intolerance of this regime to any form of dissent is quite obvious, but I cannot imagine them stooping that low just to prevent an opposition mayor from assuming office. Indeed the election of Pa Sallah Jeng is a foregone conclusion and I cannot imagine what anyone can now do to prevent him from assuming his legitimate position as Mayor of Banjul. As they say in Mandinka; "minning minning tafal, tonya le be labanna" (no matter how one meanders, it is the truth that will prevail at the end). He is the choice of the majority of the people of Banjul, and as such, it is heretical for anyone to try and deny him and indeed the people of Banjul the fruits of their labour. Another phenomenon which seems to give credence to these rumours of an attempt to marginalise the mayor-elect is the fact that even though he has been elected de facto mayor of Banjul, but there seems to be deliberate attempts to exclude him from all activities where he should by protocol be involved. We have seen for example that both the mayor-elect of the KMC and all the other chairmen-elect and councillors are being invited to official functions, and yet Pa Sallah is being treated as if he does not matter. That is very unfair a big indictment to the democratic credentials of the regime. It is also understood that all attempts by him to see the Secretary of State for Local Government to discuss the issue have been unsuccessful. One would therefore wonder whether all that is part of the scheme to marginalise him to the point of frustration and eventually he would throw in the towel? I hope both the Secretary of State and his colleagues in the regime are aware that everyone is keenly watching them on this matter, and whatever action they finally decide to take on it would have some far reaching implications, both on the image and credibility of the regime. It is also quite interesting that whether by default or by design, the new Local Government Act is completely silent as to when and how the newly elected councils are to assume office. There is a possibility that such a provision was deliberately omitted in the bill in order to give the regime enough leverage to deal with such a situation as obtains in Banjul. One would therefore tend to question their sincerity in actually giving enough autonomy to the local government councils to run their own affairs if it is the Secretary of State for Local Government for instance who has the sole power to determine when and how councils are to be inaugurated. At this stage of our development as a nation, we should have long ago passed such arbitrariness in the implementation of policies and programmes dealing with the people, because that seems to run counter to both the letter and spirit of decentralisation of the local government process as proclaimed by the regime. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe/subscribe or 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] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~