Culled From Africa Confidential.
A fixed vote and foreign indifference will put Jammeh back in power


On 18 October, President Doctor Alhaji Yahya Jammeh (Colonel, Retired) is
up for re-election. His supporters have stuffed the electoral register,
threatened opposition supporters and used government vehicles, in a
campaign costing several million dollars. The Secretariat of the Economic
Community of West African States (Ecowas) has its Conflict Resolution
Mechanism in Abuja, Nigeria, on 'early warning' status. Jammeh seized power
as a 28-year old lieutenant in July 1994. Under foreign pressure, he
formally civilianised his regime two years later but international
observers boycotted his elections because his military regime's Decree 89
had proscribed the main political parties and banned the main politicians.

In 1995, Commonwealth heads of government placed the regime on the watch-
list for their Ministerial Action Group. Last November, Nigerian Foreign
Minister Sule Lamido visited Banjul, followed in February by Commonwealth
Secretary General Don McKinnon. They persuaded Jammeh to repeal the
obnoxious decree on 22 July, the seventh anniversary of his original coup,
and took him off the list at a ministerial meeting in early September.
Appropriate legislation followed immediately, providing just enough time
for international respectability but too little for the opposition parties
to get organised. Candidates were officially nominated on 18 September.

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