Press Release:

The General elections of 2006 is now history, and STGDP join the entire Gambian community to echo our disappointment and hearth ache with the results of the presidential elections. As an organization, our mission is to see the adoption of an election process whereby there is a reasonable level playing field, the building blocs of democracy, and ultimately the Gambian people having the final say in the outcome of all elections. Presidential elections 2006 were far from that. The registration process – an important component to a free and fair election was the first sign of weakness in the process, and the beginning of the fraud. Secondly, for the third time the removal of Chairman of the IEC with the total disregard to the Constitution of the Gambia reinforced a fraud in the making. Finally, the abuse of the office of the Executive, over utilization of his incumbency status with intimidation and scare tactics was the final nail in the coffin for his reelection. President Jammeh migh
t have been reelected for the next five years, with a supposedly clear mandate, but the reality is that Gambia is still confronted with the absence of democracy, rule of law and the Gambian people are yet to be given a fair say to the direction of their country.

After the 2001 General elections, with a similar feeling that we are yet again confronted with, we hunkered down and decided to come up with a battle plan. The plan was very simple, to remove tyranny under Jammeh, replace it with a system that would bring about a level playing field for all political parties, and build the institutions of democracy that would give all Gambians the opportunity to have a say in the direction of our country. The plan was to facilitate a coalition of opposition parties, raise the necessary funds, provide them with the ability to communicate to the Gambian people, and to fight tooth and nail to prevent stealing of the election... STGDP believed that this was a viable plan and the best strategy to effectively contest the 2006 presidential election. The coalition of opposition parties was created, funds were been raised with the help of local chapters in the entire USA and a Radio station was installed directly beamed to the Gambia. In the early part of t
he coalition, funds were raised, interviews were conducted with the leaders of the coalition over the Radio and there was excitement and expectation among all Gambians. Our successes in the by- elections were clear indications that the plan has legs and ultimately can prevail.

The NADD coalition was seen by many Gambians both in Diaspora and home as a good shot at bringing an end to tyranny. The NADD coalition disintegrated, and the hopes of most Gambians spiral to hopelessness, and resulted to emotional warfare among the factions of the breakup coalition. STGDP, an organization tied like an umbilical cord to the NADD coalition, also experienced fracture within its ranks which led to the beginning of our impotency and ineffectiveness. The reality was that the opposition was relying on the single durable support from the voices of the Diaspora; unfortunately, that voice was nowhere to be found and the cyber warriors high jacked the plan. STGDP became impotent, and fairly or unfairly was seen as a partisan and was never able to put things back together... In the absence of a single voice of the Diaspora, the cyber warriors redirected their efforts to fight the survival of their parties’ agendas. That was the beginning of the end for a serious challenge to 
the Jammeh tyranny. Just like the enthusiasm in the Diaspora, our cousins back home saw the disintegration of the coalition as the last hope, and begin to entertain the idea of another five year term under tyranny. As President Jammeh fought for his re-election, he even fast forwarded the election calendar to prevent us from any chance of putting it back together.
Now the rest is history. President Jammeh and his supporters are busy celebrating their landslide victory.  Just like us in the Diaspora, the voters back home saw the disintegration as the beginning of the end for our chance of putting out our best and effective armor to fight an effective battle to uproot an entrenched tyrant. We failed to put our best plan to counter a formidable foe, and unfortunately we lost.

Finally, STGDP would like to thank all Gambians living in the Diaspora. As a people we refused to give up on our country. Even though, we are living better across the board:  better access to clean drinking water, better access to healthcare, better access to shelter, better access to quality education, better access to liberty, freedom and basic rights as human beings. These are the very things we are fighting for, and would like to see that one day Gambians in the entire country will have access to these rights. Abject and extreme poverty is indeed a violation of human rights, and we will continue to fight to bring an end to all forms of violation of human rights in the Gambia. For us living in the Diaspora, we will continue to disagree, fight sometimes ferociously, but in the final analysis it is worth it because the survival of our self is at stake. For STGDP, we are indeed disappointed but not down for good, we will regroup and will continue to find ways to make a difference i
n our quest to find peace and prosperity in the Gambia. The next game plan has just begun. 

Thanks

STGDP

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