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BambaLaye
USA
100 Posts |
 Posted - 15 Aug 2006 : 03:23:29
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Exposing Jammeh’s Fraud – What Needs to Be Done (I)
On a recent visit to The Gambia at the end of the first quarter of this year, I could not help but tease public opinion by talking to a number of people about the possibilities of defeating the A(F)PRC under Jammeh’s leadership in the upcoming elections. Most of those I spoke with indicated the seemingly inevitable passage into yet another five years with the A(F)PRC. Some of these people are well respected elites of the society in which they live. Some would categorically tell me “these people (the opposition) are wasting their time because Yaya will never lose an election in Gambia.”
Upon further discussion with a couple of those who gave a similar response, I gleaned their conclusion was based on the results of past elections, the state of the fragmented opposition and the fact that Yaya will do anything, legally or illegally especially, to win elections because he has his Kanilai dream to fulfill.
Yaya by all means, is unwilling to risk losing elections come September 22 and beyond. He will restrict the exercise of democratic freedoms, yet allow periodic multiparty elections in an attempt to bolster his domestic and international legitimacy. It is therefore expected he will manipulate the process to ensure he remains in power – another thirty years?
Yaya and the A(F)PRC have manifestly mastered the tricks and trades of electoral authoritarianism and should be expected to employ them in abundance without hindrance if we let him. He will do everything - during the registration process, campaign period, election day, vote counting and tabulation, and may in fact refuse to hand over power in case of defeat - to keep up the appearance of meeting democratic norms while subverting the integrity of the electoral process.
In my scribe here to fore, by all intent and purposes, I do not wish to give credence to the tactics of the fraudsters at the A(F)PRC or get an inch closer to arming them with new means of carrying on with their trade; au contraire, my intent is to remind all stakeholders of the possibilities and share my view of how some of these tricks could be countered or averted.
We should bear in mind in the absence of a thorough assessment of the election laws and regulations to identify flaws which may slant the playing field to Jammeh’s favor and the absence of independent monitors from the beginning to the end of the process, it becomes an uphill battle to combat some of the tactics employed in rigging the process. The actual independence of the IEC is one such flaw that needs to be thoroughly examined.
Exposing the fraud and manipulation may not mean putting a dent into Jammeh’s intent to rule by all means - by relying on the nation’s resources and the use of force - but may help erode the legitimacy he seeks to gain through the conduct of elections. Who knows, we may have our own version of a Rose, Orange or Tulip revolution as has happened in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan in recent years.
One thing is certain, that is Jammeh had employed some of the tactics in past elections and there is every indication he will resort to his old and much too common ways come September 22 and beyond. We should therefore not rest on our laurels of vindication this time round.
Let’s look at some of the tactics he could employ and measures every principled peace and justice loving Gambian, more so the opposition parties should take to dissipate some of the effects of a rigged elections process:
Registry Fraud and Manipulations
The IEC has recently completed a voter registration exercise around the country. This and previously conducted exercises are supposed to identify who is able to cast a ballot and who is not; it is therefore fundamental to the integrity of the elections process.
We have heard and read reports of over ninety thousand new voters being registered by the IEC. We must not neglect the possibility that some of those new registrants may include the names of the dead, children, foreigners and other non-eligible persons. An inflated voter registration will undoubtedly increase the risk of fraudulent ballots being cast. Some of the voters may have been registered twice with the expectation that some officials of the IEC could collude with the A(F)PRC to allow these ‘double-headers’ to cast their ballots at two different polling stations. It is obvious the indelible inks plastered on voters’ fingers are in fact not indelible after all.
Reports that ineligible non-citizens were fraudulently legitimized to register and vote for the A(F)PRC have been circulating in town. There have been complaints that some of these registrants are clearly not eligible but have in their possession genuine Gambian documents that allow them to register and vote, possibly with the aid of some immigration officials. It is worth mentioning that a bulky group of immigration officials were recently (after the registration exercise) promoted with pay raises backdated to the beginning of the year. Rationale may dictate this is payback for “taking care of A(F)PRC business in exemplary fashion.”
Likewise, certain legitimate voters who are likely to support the opposition may not have been given the opportunity to register or may have been removed from the voter registry where they have been previously registered especially those in certain opposition strongholds. We heard reports of registration stations running out of essential materials like Polaroid films to complete registrations in certain registration points. Is it mere coincidence that some of those stations are opposition strongholds?
To help avert the possible effects of voter registration fraud, the opposition must insist on transparency of the registration process. This might be a little too late now but there are steps that can be taken to ascertain the integrity of the registry. The accuracy and completeness of the registry can be verified by taking some simple measures. Though it could be labor intensive and risky business, a thorough assessment of the voter registry is straightforward. The opposition should select a random sample of voters on the registry and interview them to double check the accuracy of their information on the registry. Conversely, they should select a sample of elders or willing, able and vote eligible persons and verify if they are registered or given the opportunity to register; to ascertain the completeness of the registry. It can be concluded that anyone found to be omitted from the list is probably disenfranchised by IEC.
(To be continued)
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Edited by - BambaLaye on 15 Aug 2006 03:32:04 |
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