Hamjatta,
[1] Youur time is valuable and your questions are important so, let me get right to the point.
A UDP Gov't will put a term of office of an elected president for two terms of five years.
[2] In my honest openion, gambians wanted an age limit of a president,he or she should attained the minimum age of forty years not more than seventy years therefore, a UDP Gov't will go in for that.
[3]Although the constitution included verious provisions relating to elections,the precise arrangements for the 1996-97 voting wre mostly set by a 161 page decree that the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling [AFPRC] release in April and Jammeh handpick the members of the provisional Independent Electoral Commission [PIEC] now the Independent Electoral Commission[IEC],the body entrusted with organising the elections.
UDP Gov't will give Gambians a credible Independent Electoral Commission [IEC] that will be appointed by the National Assembly and given the powers and functions conferred on it by a the constitution to:
[a] Conduction of registration of voters and the nomination and election of candidates for the offices of the president,national Assembly,District chief,Mayor or Chairman of municipal council and such other offices.
[b] the regitration and supervision of political campaign and political parties incudiding the issuing of permit to hold political rally.
[4] UDP Gov;t will not disban the Gambia National Army because as a sovereinty we an army to protect us from external agression and to guard our waters from illegal dumping of toxic waste.I personally believed that we have some good men and women in the army when given the right positions would represent the interest the Gambian people.The army will be revamp and given a better and effective training on both politically and army skills.We know an Army without a political education is can easily abuse his powers.
[5]For the constitutional arrangement,expect a good one.Though,I am not a lawyer but as you know the secertary general and party leader Ousainou Darboe is a lawyer cople with the team of good Gambian lawyers who have the country in heart would deliver the good.
[6] During the first phase of the military draconian decrees were promulgaged by the military junta that arogated to itself the executive and legislative functions.The first among these decree was decree decree No.1 which suspended parts of the constitution thus effectively denying the people from participating in any form of manner they were governed.Decree No. 45 set up the national Intelligence Agency [NIA] Decree No. 11 set up the Commissions of enquiry with the undeclared objective of besically humiliating and discrediting former ppp political oppenents and bar potential candidates from contesting for political office.Today as i write,over $25 million US dollars of Gambian people money remain unaccounted for stashed away in Swiss Banks.And this is the regime that claims to have taken power to rid the country of corruption and embezzlement of public funds.I will suggest to my collegues when the UDP is democratically in power not to honour the Kankaroo ruling and to fresh investigatigate both the Jawara regime and Jammeh moderous regime.I believed it is only a democratically elected Government under the rule of law that is dim fit to investigate the past ativities of a Government under military Junta.Under the atmosphere of the a military transition Government were people arrested ,detained at random,abused at random and released at random.
Let no one misinterpret me,i am not saying nothing went wrong during the Jawara regime but i am saying a military regime is not the competent authority to investigate them.Under a UDP Government a rule of law will exist and will side with any wrong doing.
For the remnants of the the ppp,they are in every political party today but we are not against that hence, they are Gambians and have the rights to join any political organisation. I will give you an example:Aji fatou Sallah,Fatou Jahumpha a good friend of Chilel,Hammeh Kebbeh, Alh.Bora Manjang,Sambujang Jagne, ALH.Banta Camara,Khalipha Sanno of Brufut and many more i cannot mention here who were strong members of the erstwhile ppp Government.
I will assure you that this young party is out for Justice and Justice for the Gambian people.Whether you were PPP,NCP o GPP you have the right to a fair trial under the rule of law with out fear or favour this is my believed.
Hamjatta,the above mentioned statements are my own believed and when UDP comes to power i will strongly stand for them.
Thanks for your questions and feel free at all time to ask any question during my stay with the list.
Saihou
On Mon, 26 June 2000, Hamjatta Kanteh wrote:
>
> Karamba and Mballow,
> Many thanks on your warm responses. It indicates a trend that needs to be
> maintained; that of engagement and sharing in the war to defeat the Fascist
> regime.
> It seems partly due to my own lack of explicit exploration of the
> contentious issues that I said would be of necessity for there to any
> effective "brutal bargain" to be struck between those who in principle
> wouldn't vote UDP under normal circumstance and the UDP leadership, you
> haven't sent right balls rolling in your responses. Allow me then to lay bare
> the punchline as simply and briefly as possible.
> Virtually all of us agree on one basic thing: that the current political
> arrangements leaves much to be desired for and meant for only perpetuating
> the ruling clique whilst marginalising the People. In lieu of the aforesaid,
> fundamental reform of the body polity are essential to ensure the tyranny of
> Jammeh is not repeated by whoever takes over after we empty him into the
> dustbin of history. The UDP was amongst many who decried the doctoring of the
> 1997 constitution to favour the ruling military. My fears are that it [the
> UDP] can easily take the reins of power from Jammeh and prove to be spineless
> in reforming the body polity that is designed such to give the governing
> elites more self perpetuating powers. My questions therefore are:
> 1. Will the UDP put a term limit on the presidency?
> 2. Will it put an age limit on the presidency?
> 3. Will it give the Independent Electoral Commission further powers to
> extricate itself from the corruptible reaches of the executive?
> 4. Will it work in principle towards disbanding the army and set up a
> professional National Guard of fewer than five hundred men, well trained in
> crowd control and protection of private property?
> 5. What constitutional arrangement can we expect from the UDP? What changes
> will it make to the defective 1997 constitution it had criticised so much in
> the recent past?
> 6. Will a UDP gov't recognise the rulings of Commissions of Enquiry that
> confiscated the properties of corrupt members of the erstwhile PPP regime
> given the uneasy symbiotic relationship that has become the UDP and remnants
> of what is left of the PPP?
> None of your responses touched on any of the aforementioned. With the
> aforementioned, we don't need "specificity" or detailed policies from
> experts, policy mandarins and savants but a simple sacrosanct pledge of an
> undertaking by the leadership of the UDP; a convenant of some sort in black
> and white as to what we should expect.
> I will stop here for now and await your kind responses. Some might argue
> that I'm very petty or my stance is diversionary as it will take the
> spotlight off the dictator whom we all fervently wish to see the back of. But
> better the wrinkles of our differences, concerns, fears and expectations are
> ironed out now than later when only throwaway and ill thought policy drives
> might ensue out of default. To rid the country of the cancer that is Jammeh,
> we need to lay out the map in the open and mark our itinerary as clearly as
> time and material permits us.
> Sincerely,
> Hamjatta Kanteh
>
> hkanteh
>
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