Manneh, thanks again for your insights. I sincerely hope that your
contributions to the Opposition's bid to remove Yaya through the ballot box
is not limited to G_L.  In other words, I hope the Opposition parties back
home retain you or someone of your caliber to advise them about the
potential shenanigans of the IEC and APRC vis-a-vis the coming elections. It
is through people like you that the Opposition will be able to avoid the
impending stealing of the APRC. I have no doubt in my mind that they will
attempt to steal the elections and the IEC will help them in any way the IEC
could.  It is up to people like you that are conversant with the system to
selflessly assist the Opposition to minimize or eradicate this stealing.

News from Banjul indicate that rather than the 'limited' registration
exercise you hoped was going to take place, we are going to have a 'general'
and an elaborate re-registration process. Like you, I hope the funding will
be available for this costly exercise and the IEC appreciates the magnitude
of what it has embarked on.

I received the news with mixed feelings. On the one hand I am glad that
voters will be issued with brand new cards. That way, the voters that were
disenfranchised by illegal 'vote-buying' will regain their franchises. On
the other hand, like Ebrima's Sources, I can smell a rat here. This could
serve as an opportunity for APRC to register ineligible voters (for example
Casamance Refugees) to vote for Yaya. People can also walk across the border
from Senegal to Kanilai and register to vote. APRC can also use this
re-registration exercise in order to engage in 'multiple' registration of
voters. They can register their stalwarts in several constituencies and
ferry them on election day to vote in adjacent constituencies.

All these vices can be prevented by a vigilant Opposition and that is where
people like you come in. For instance, the 'indelible ink' safeguard you
gave us some time back can help in eradicating the phenomenon of multiple
voting. If we have an ink that will stick to someone's fingers twenty-four
hours after that person first casted his or her vote, we can prevent that
person from voting more than once.

The issue of registering ineligible voters is a trickier and more urgent one
in light of the proposals to re-register everyone from scratch. That problem
has to be tackled forthwith. Because I am not as familiar with our current
electoral laws as you are, I can only assume that certain things are in
place before the commencement of the registration exercise. If those
parameters are not set, the Opposition should insist that the IEC set the
standards before embarking on the exercise.

For instance, I assume that a list of all registered voters will be posted
in public for everyone to see once the registration exercise is completed.
No one that is not on the list will be given a voter's card. In other words,
everyone that is given a voter's card, ought to be on the list. This list
will be exhibited to the public for certain number of weeks. Political
parties will be allowed to scrutinize this list and challenge the
eligibility of certain people on the list.

I also assume that the IEC has a mechanism in place for the adjudication of
the challenges filed against certain voters. The Opposition should ensure
that the people making decisions about the eligibility of voters should be
neutral and the 'challenge' process is free, fair and transparent. If
parties are aggrieved by the decisions of any panel deciding on eligibility
of voters, those parties should be given a right of recourse to the regular
courts. This process can only be free, fair, transparent and expeditious if
the registration rules are clear at the onset.

By this I mean that before the commencement of the re-registration, the IEC
has to set out clear guidelines regarding what Gambians should provide to
prove that they are eligible to vote in elections. I assume that the 'proof'
is not just limited to a 'national' identity card. There are simply many
Gambians that cannot afford these cards and did not see the need to get
them. On the other hand, APRC cronies have dubiously supplied a lot of
non-Gambians with our 'national' identity cards and passports. So the
possession of this document is neither here nor there. It helps, but it is
not conclusive proof that someone is Gambian or not.

Gambia is very small and the constituencies as they are currently demarcated
are even smaller. We all know each other in our respective villages. The
Opposition need to think of the most reliable form of identifying that some
one is indeed Gambian and resides in a particular constituency. Can we rely
on 'village elders' to sponsor people for registration? Have the village
'chiefs' positions been compromised because they all owe their positions to
Yaya and have unashamedly declared allegiance to the Dictator? Can we trust
these chiefs to reliably identify their constituents and not try to favor
APRC? How reliable is our birth registration system? How reliable is the
rates/tax collection system? These are some of the questions I think the
Opposition needs to consider when deciding on the parameters that need to be
set before the re-registration process begins.

The Opposition should come together and brainstorm on these issues in a
conducive forum where many ideas will be aired. Upon agreeing on the
objective standards that need to be set to determine eligibility to vote,
the Opposition needs to consult with the IEC to see whether those standards
are in place BEFORE the registration begins. If those standards are NOT in
place, let us forget the elections.

Another ultimatum we have to set is that the 'challenge' mechanism has to be
fair. Justice must not just be done, it has to be seen to be done. We have
to have an exhaustive process to deal with these 'challenges' before the
elections. Again, if the IEC is not prepared to prevent the APRC from
rigging these 'challenges', we should forget the elections. If the courts do
not handle these 'challenge' cases fairly, let us leave Yaya to run against
himself.

In my humble opinion, that is the stage we are at right now. We need to
ensure that eligible Gambians are registered to vote (only once). If the IEC
does not share that idea, let us not waste time contesting a rigged
elections. I hope the IEC sees sense and do what is right for The Gambia.
Short of that, Yaya will be removed anyway; just with something more drastic
than the ballot box.
KB



>From: Lamin Manneh PF <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: BOYCOTT THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
>Date: Wed, 2 May 2001 12:05:23 -0700
>
>Mr.. Conteh, talking about boycotting elections is premature at this stage
>of affairs. What oppositions need to do is to engage IEC in serious and
>frank discussions on what went wrong in the previous elections and find
>practical solutions to all of them. Some of the pertinent issues are
>campaign ethics, use of public media, the involvement of military, police,
>NIA, chiefs and Divisional Commissioners(campaigning at official levels).
>The IEC must keep their independence and ensure that every single rule
>governing the forthcoming elections are strictly observed. They(IEC) must
>be
>prepared to apply sanctions on any political party that infringe any
>existing electoral law.
>If the IEC lose control of the game and all forms of irregularities are
>happening before the casting of votes, then it will be legitimate for the
>oppositions to boycott the election. They can do this anytime, even on the
>eve of election. Now, if the opposition parties believed that the
>registration of voters was rigged but were unable to adjudicate or maybe
>did
>but lost their cases in court unfairly, they can boycott elections
>outright.
>But why boycott elections now? Is it mainly because of the new voter
>registration plans that is underway in The Gambia? Remember, Ebrima
>Ceesay's
>source gives rumors which most of the time has some element of truth but
>not
>the whole truth. Sometimes very misleading. We need to know what really the
>IEC is up to. It is true that there will be a six week registration
>exercise
>fairly soon in The Gambia. But is this exercise a general supplementary
>registration throughout the country or voiding the old voter's card and
>have
>a fresh registration. If the later is true it is going to cost government
>millions of Dalassis to register every Gambian 18 years and above and will
>take approximately 3 months to complete with fairly the same or more
>resources deployed in 1996 registration. In fact i don't think both ICE and
>government have that capital base to conduct a fresh compilation of voters
>within six weeks unless they have a substantial amount of money from a
>foreign sponsor. The former is just a routine exercise to register people
>who now reach 18 years or more and also those who missed the last
>registration. It could be general(the whole country) or specific electoral
>district/s.
>NO FEAR AT THIS STAGE UNCLE CONTEH:
>It is a civic right of all political parties and every Gambian to monitor
>and scrutinize every single registration card issued to anybody during
>voter
>registration. If these individuals or political parties or any interest
>group witness or believed that some irregularities had happened at
>registration centers, they have all right to go to court. If all legal
>means
>are exhausted without any success or let say truth, then we can think of
>boycotting elections.
>The opposition has to be very vigilant and make sure that there is no
>double
>registration of certain individuals either within or in different
>constituency/ies and also look for foreigners.
>Mr.. Conteh, i can see the type of person you are by reading your postings.
>I also understand your frustrations. But let handle these issues
>judiciously
>and professionally. Anger or emotions will not solve it. We (oppositions)
>must understand our problems in order to to solve them properly.
>With best regard
>PF MANNEH

>
>_________________________________________________________________
>Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
>Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
>You may also send subscription requests to
>[log in to unmask]
>if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your
>full name and e-mail address.
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------

_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask]
if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------