Witness the Jammeh Circus if you will! Signs Of Desperation In The Jammeh Camp By Mbaye B. Sarr & Mohammed L. Sillah Sep 13, 2006, 16:21 About ten days to the presidential election, there appear to be a strange sort of desperation hovering over the Jammeh campaign. Wherever he goes now Jammeh has been swearing by the Holy Koran, which he holds like a magic charm, to impress upon voters that he can be unseated neither by the ballot or the bullet. “Bilahi Wallahi Taalahi, “ he screams, “I will not be removed from the position as President of this country, that I have toiled for so much, neither by votes or by coups.” He has also warned listeners in campaign rallies in many places that “ IN 1996 some of you did not vote for me, but that did not stop me from bringing development to your area. I did this because I thought I should give you the benefit of the doubt since you had just known me for two years. In 2001 too many of you did not vote for me, but that did not keep me from bringing development to your doorsteps. This I did because of my Muslim heart of forgiveness. But this election will be after my twelve years in power. If you do not know me enough now, you will never know me better. If you do not vote for me this time, I will know you do not want development and I will treat you accordingly. If you do not vote for me, do not expect any development from my government. Yes, it is tit for tat now.” The 2006 presidential elections, Jammeh has said repeatedly, is between those who want “progress” and the others who are for “retrogression.” Yesterday, Monday September 11th, addressing crowds at the Foni district town of Sintet, where many of his close associates, including Army boss Lang Tombong Tamba, hail from, Jammeh shocked his listeners by saying that though he is aware that people there were witches who wanted to feed on his body, they will find it impossible if and when they try it on him. The signs of desperations are not just to be found in Jammeh’s queer rhetoric, but also in his comportment and in the make up of his massive entourage. To embark upon his campaign trail, which is being masqueraded as a non-partisan Meet-the-People-Tour, President Jammeh and his men have commandeered the whole civil service and their flashy vehicles, half of the army, many police men, divisional Governors, almost all the militants of his APRC party to take along in a countrywide show of numbers and support. On his way around the country, President Jammeh has been throwing out close to a million T-shirts, base-ball caps and the APRC party’s green flags to crowds running after his long entourage of hundreds vehicles, according some estimates. Meanwhile all office and public buildings, police stations, schools, hospitals, military camps and premises of public enterprises have been draped in the ruling APRC party’ s green color. It reminds many of the days of one-party era of the 1960s in Guinea Conakry or Mobutu’s Zaire. It looks as if there is no Independent Electoral Commission that is independent and non-partisan enough to put a stop to these anomalies and clear violation of all the laws, regulation and spirit of fair play and leveled playing field. It also looks as if there is no Memorandum of Understanding signed between the country’s political parties, initiated by a special envoy of the Commonwealth Secretariat and sponsored by Nigerian President Obasanjo earlier in February this year. What it looks like, or what Jammeh and his henchmen are trying hard to make things look is that a Jammeh victory is inevitable. The irony is that President Jammeh, while painting this picture of inevitability seems to be confronted with more and more doubt that has been steadily leading to what looks like desperation. Perhaps the cause of the desperation is explained by what Secretary of State Edward Singhateh told the people of Basse a couple of days ago. He told them “While we in the APRC appreciate the warmth of massive welcome you have just shown us, records show that you are not as enthusiastic when it comes to actually voting for us.” But Jammeh and his men are also not civil to communities that do not welcome them jubilantly enough. Those communities are branded as “tribalist” and at times even get insulted at APRC rallies. This has been the electoral tactic of the Jammeh regime since 1996. By presenting a picture of inevitability to a largely fatalistic population Jammeh hopes to win the elections without default. But he also wants to avoid depriving the electoral process of acceptable legitimacy and international endorsement. The later being an important ingredient or the requirements for access to badly needed IMF, HIPC, Millennium Challenge Corporation and other international facilities. Therefore, though international opinion have a responsibility in ensuring free and fair election in The Gambia, opposition parties, civil society organizations and right groups should expose and condemn these flagrant violations of the country’s constitution, The Gambia’s laws and the IEC’s regulations. Thanks God Jammeh’s sojourn of two weeks has been cut short and ended without any loss of life. He must however hold back his bands of thugs who have been constantly source of traffic hazard, nuisance to calm and order and even perpetrators of harassment against innocent onlookers and passersby. To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask]