My humble analysis of events leading to 1996 elections.
Following the military coup of 1994 a Draft Constitution was drawn for Gambians to approve. Many at the time had no idea about the vital contents of the document under review. During that void period of ignorance and uncertainty the Executive of PDOIS went about canvassing for people to endorse by a 'Yes' vote. With expectations that PDOIS Executive knew what was at stake, majority of Gambians naively voted in favour of a totally bastardised Constitution.
The fact that term limits was not included in the FINAL DRAFT of the 1996 constitution has nothing to do with PDOIS. If PDOIS assessed the 1996 constitution to the best of their ability and found it to be a lesser of two evils(decrees Vs. flawed constitution), then went on to canvass for it, maybe you can question their judgement but not much else.
Vital elements of the draft Constitution had already been sliced out of it and yet PDOIS political experts did not let Gambians know that. One such important input of the Draft Constitution was about the Presidential Term Limit. This was deliberately omitted and Gambians voted for a constitution that was to give any sitting president a blank ticket for life rule.
To put things in perspective: the constitution did not contain term limits previously and it's a bit unrealistic to expect that the A(F)PRC we come to know (or most who came to power by force for that matter) would have yielded to such demands. Term limits is the way froward, but only a tiny minority of countries actually have it enshrined in their constitutions.
It may be argued that though the military knew what they were doing by intentionally deleting that good part of our nation's book of rules, it was PDOIS Executives who confused Gambians more seriously.
Please tell me how PDOIS confused Gambians?!? Your this write up is very thin on evidence.
The question remains as who to blame. There were good reasons why the military deleted anything to do with Presidential term Limit. There were better reasons why PSDOIS Executives decided to trick Gambians into voting for a constitution that was totally flawed.
How did you come to the conclusion that PDOIS did trick people to vote yes? And if so could you explain what they did wrong? The Military deleted the term limits from the FINAL DRAFT yet you are looking for someone else to blame.
The military at that time banned all political parties and believed the next election was a ready beef to bite and chew. Executives of PDOIS thought it was all in their favour being the only active political party operating in total defiance of Military ban on all political parties.
May I remind you that Foroyaa is newspaper. Now can you back up your above sentence with some evidence of how PDOIS was the only operational political party at the time, and how they operated in defiance of the ban on all political parties?
Elections came in 1996 and results showed PDOIS further down rejection lane. Other parties could not heal the fatal wounds inflicted by the long spell of ban that kept them away from genuine politics. Since then the political atmosphere continues getting more and more imbalanced for any decent politics in Gambia.
After wallowing in glee long enough, you might realise that in 1996 new parties sprang up, there where old parties that morphed into new ones, the A(F)PRC had the power to influence the result no matter how people voted. So this was a completely new terrain, your comparison is irrelevant.
On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 7:45 PM, SUNTOU TOURAY <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
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My humble analysis of events leading to 1996 elections.
Following the military coup of 1994 a Draft Constitution was drawn for Gambians to approve. Many at the time had no idea about the vital contents of the document under review. During that void period of ignorance and uncertainty the Executive of PDOIS went about canvassing for people to endorse by a 'Yes' vote. With expectations that PDOIS Executive knew what was at stake, majority of Gambians naively voted in favour of a totally bastardised Constitution.
Vital elements of the draft Constitution had already been sliced out of it and yet PDOIS political experts did not let Gambians know that. One such important input of the Draft Constitution was about the Presidential Term Limit. This was deliberately omitted and Gambians voted for a constitution that was to give any sitting president a blank ticket for life rule.
It may be argued that though the military knew what they were doing by intentionally deleting that good part of our nation's book of rules, it was PDOIS Executives who confused Gambians more seriously.
The question remains as who to blame. There were good reasons why the military deleted anything to do with Presidential term Limit. There were better reasons why PSDOIS Executives decided to trick Gambians into voting for a constitution that was totally flawed.
The military at that time banned all political parties and believed the next election was a ready beef to bite and chew. Executives of PDOIS thought it was all in their favour being the only active political party operating in total defiance of military ban on all political parties.
Elections came in 1996 and results showed PDOIS further down rejection lane. Other parties could not heal the fatal wounds inflicted by the long spell of ban that kept them away from genuine politics. Since then the political atmosphere continues getting more and more imbalanced for any decent politics in Gambia.
For historical reflections, the Executive of PDOIS can now keep the crown for leading Gambians towards a political doom.
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