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Momodou
Denmark
11804 Posts |
 Posted - 10 Feb 2007 : 15:28:54
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INTERVIEW WITH SUWAIBOU TOURAY ON NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS IN WULI EAST
By Musa Barrow
The Candidate of the National Alliance for democracy and Development (NADD) in Wuli East in the just concluded National Assembly Elections, Mr. Suwaibou Touray has attributed his defeat to what he called ethnic sentiments orchestrated by his opponents during their campaign and not based on genuine national or local issues.
Mr. Touray said he has polled far more votes than the APRC in all other areas but when it comes to Baja Kunda, he had noticed that all those who are opposed to the APRC did not vote at all and those who did voted for his opponent Bekai Camara who is himself a Serahule by ethnicity.
Speaking to Foroyaa in an exclusive interview Mr. Touray pointed out that the central element in this ethnic message was the appeal for Serahules to either vote for a person from own ethnic group or abstain rather than vote for someone who is not one of them.
Touray further added that although NADD had approached the Serahule communities and presented its programmes before them, that could not prevent them from voting the way they did. He cited an example by saying that in the largest Serahule village, Bajakunda, out of over 2600 registered votes NADD managed to score only 28 votes. Touray said Serahules who were opposition sympathisers told him they were threatened and warned to abstain from voting to avoid being ostracized in the Serahule community.
This he opined, clearly reflected in Baja Kunda where out of over 2600 registered voters only a little over 1200 actually took part in the voting exercise. Touray went further to state that apart from the propagation of ethnic sentiments, intimidation and harassment were also employed during the campaign. He noted that the APRC’s campaign team threatened his supporters of arrest and the dismantting of public structures such as schools and boreholes during their rallies if they should lose the election. He also said that the APRC went on threatening the people of Sutukoba that they would block the philanthropists who are helping them with their rice field project if they do not vote for them.
He also indicated that several Secretaries of State, notable among them SoS Edward Singhateh, were on the campaign trail telling people that development will not come if they should vote for him(Touray) because government cannot work with the opposition.
Touray also noted that the Chief embarked on a clandestine campaign characterised by threats, mainly directed at the Fula community that their herds would physically be counted one by one which would increase their annual cattle rates that they pay to the Area Council. This has an impact because it has been raised by the people on several occasions during the campaign.
When it was put to Mr. Touray what methods his party utilised to counter this intimidation and threat based campaign employed by his opponents, Touray said his party, being an organisation that sensitise the people, continued to enlighten the electorate on their rights and responsibilities. This he said has been their tactic against disinformation. Asked what he had to offer the electorate of Wuli East, if he was elected; Suwaibou Touray said he had made it extremely clear that if he was given the mandate, he would have created a constituency fund for the people of Wuli East geared towards aiding development in the area. This proposed fund, he said, would have come from his salary as he promised to give out three thousand dalasis every month.
However, Mr. Touray stressed that the setting up of this fund would have been utilized to help communities and could have enabled them to attract contributions even from NGOs to acquire e.g., Milling Machines, etc or to help the youth with sporting materials or any other development related undertaking. Asked about what he thinks would rid the electorate of the ethnic sentiments in politics Mr. Touray said this is not an easy task; that what is required is to undertake extensive civic education that will fully sensitise the people on the issues of sovereignty which helps them to make informed choice for competent, dedicated and committed representatives. Finally, he said ‘as long as opportunist politicians continue to miseducate the masses, the process of liberating the people to own themselves will have to be a protracted one’.
Source: Foroyaa Newspaper Burning Issue
Issue No. 016/2007, 9-11 February, 2007
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