Following the recent heated exchanges between the UDP party leader, Lawyer
Ousainou Darboe and the party's former Organising secretary, Lamin Waa
Juwara has been expelled from the party.

According to the Daily Observer, which reproduced a communique from the
party, the decision was taken on Thursady, 22nd August 2002. Extracts from
the communique say, among other things:

"Having considered that Mr. Juwara, being the architect who spearheaded the
party boycott of the National assembly and Local Government elections,
ostensibly based on his investigations and findings as National Organising
secretary, about the registration of aliens and the manipulation of the
Independent Electoral Commission, the central committee felt disappointed
that Mr. Juwara should now unashamedly attribute the boycott to "lack of
funds" especially when he knew that the party had paid all the deposits for
the candidates. Some candidates were, as a matter of fact, prepared to pay
their own deposits as independents. It is a known fact that some parties
require their candidates to pay their own deposits. Lack of funds was
therefore not the issue at all. Mr. Juwara as the party's officer-in-charge
of political affairs, convinced the executive to boycott the elections.

If Mr. Juwara is serious about the so called revelations and assertions
that he made about the boycott, he should show his true colour by endorsing
the outcome of the presidential elections and stop attacking the UDP
leadership for congratulating Jammeh".

Folks, this are just two out of about paragraphs of the communique. What I
found interesting though are:

1. Lamin Waa Juwara did not attend this meeting to trash out things.

2. The UDP leadership seems to be telling us that they believed the outcome
of the presidential elections as being free and fair, hence their decision
to congratulate Jammeh.

3. They also seem to be telling us that the boycott was based purely on
the "investigations and findings" of Juwara as the UDP's National
Organising Secretary.

4. The party made absolutely no mention in their communique, the serious
allegations by Juwara that the UDP's bankruptcy led to their boycott of the
NA and LG elections. It also did not mention anything about Waa's made
charges of tax evasion, corruption, siphoning of party funds and lack of
transparency by the UDP leader.

I'm sure we have'nt heard the last of this saga.

Have a good day, Gassa.

--
There is a time in the life of every problem when it is big enough to see,
yet small enough to solve (Mike Leavitt)

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