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Momodou
Denmark
11804 Posts |
 Posted - 06 Feb 2007 : 13:46:52
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A Post-mortem of the National Assembly Elections (Part I)
By Demba Jawo
Now that the results of the National Assembly elections are known and the "two empty barrels" have been thrown out of the National Assembly, no doubt to the jubilation of those Gambians who are happy with a rubber-stamp National Assembly, where anything originating from President Jammeh and the executive will pass without any dissent, it is time to reflect on the implications.
The question in the lips of every Gambian concerned about the welfare of this country is how the APRC managed to obtain such a "landslide victory", despite the regime's very poor humanitarian and governance record, and why a majority of Gambians failed to come out and vote.
While there may not be straight forward answers to these and many other questions, but there are certain obvious factors responsible. There is absolutely no doubt that more than 90 percent of those who failed to come out and vote are opposition supporters. The question is therefore why they chose to stay at home instead of come out and vote for the candidates of their choice. Again, while there may not be a straight forward answer, but there is no doubt that the unceremonious split of the opposition was an important factor. Many opposition supporters were so angry with the unjustifiable split that they chose to rather allow the status quo to continue than come out to vote for any of the opposition candidates.
Of course, while that was not the best option for anyone interested in the welfare of the country, but it was not difficult to understand their reason for choosing such an option, no doubt out of frustration with the opposition disunity.
Another obvious reason why the turn out was so low, no doubt had something to do with the insecurity that all known supporters and sympathisers of the opposition are subjected to in this country. Even during the official campaign period, when the IEC was supposed to have been in charge of every aspect of the electoral process, we have seen how some opposition supporters and even those already nominated to contest either for the opposition or as independent candidates were arrested and their supporters subjected to intimidation and harassment, for no obvious reason but because they dared challenge the APRC.
Indeed, the APRC supporters and militants seem to have been given a carte blanche to intimidate and harass opposition supporters, while the police were given specific orders by President Jammeh to "deal with trouble makers" or be dealt with themselves, and we all know what that meant in present day Gambian parlance.
Therefore, there was quite a genuine reason for many people to choose to stay at home rather than get involved in the political game, knowing fully well that they could be harassed for even being suspected of sympathising with the opposition, let alone manifest their open support for it.
It is therefore quite obvious that as long as this type of politics continues in this country, the voter apathy manifested in both the presidential elections in September and the National Assembly elections will be a permanent feature in this country, with only those who support the APRC daring to come out and manifest their political views and the silent majority would remain disenfranchised as a result of fear of intimidation and harassment.
It is quite clear to any genuine analyst of the Gambian political scene that if every Gambian was free to come out and manifest his/her support for the party or candidate of his/her choice, the outcome of both the presidential elections and the National Assembly elections would have been very much different from what obtained.
Therefore, we should hope and pray that those who still have the courage to advise President Jammeh would tell him about the need to respect the wishes of those who hold a different political view from his, rather than term all those with a different political view point as "unpatriotic" Gambians who deserve to be treated as enemies of the state.
Indeed, the international community should also take note of this undesirable state of affairs and take it up with the Gambian authorities, because this is certainly unsustainable. It would be irresponsible for people of goodwill both in The Gambia and the outside to watch the country slide into possible chaos.
See (Part II)
Source: Foroyaa Newspaper Burning Issue
Issue No. 014/2007, 5-6 February, 2007
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A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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