Exposing Jammeh’s Fraud – What Needs to Be Done (I)

On a recent visit to The Gambia at the end of the first quarter of this
year, I could not help but tease public opinion by talking to a number of
people about the possibilities of defeating the A(F)PRC under Jammeh’s
leadership in the upcoming elections. Most of those I spoke with indicated
the seemingly inevitable passage into yet another five years with the
A(F)PRC. Some of these people are well respected elites of the society in
which they live. Some would categorically tell me “these people (the
opposition) are wasting their time because Yaya will never lose an
election in Gambia.”

Upon further discussion with a couple of those who gave a similar
response, I gleaned their conclusion was based on the results of past
elections, the state  of the fragmented opposition and the fact that Yaya
will do anything, legally or illegally especially, to win elections
because he has his Kanilai dream to fulfill.

Yaya by all means, is unwilling to risk losing elections come September 22
and beyond. He will restrict the exercise of democratic freedoms, yet
allow periodic multiparty elections in an attempt to bolster his domestic
and international legitimacy. It is therefore expected he will manipulate
the process to ensure he remains in power – another thirty years?

Yaya and the A(F)PRC have manifestly mastered the tricks and trades of
electoral authoritarianism and should be expected to employ them in
abundance without hindrance if we let him. He will do everything  - during
the registration process, campaign period, election day, vote counting and
tabulation, and may in fact refuse to hand over power in case of defeat -
to keep up the appearance of meeting democratic norms while subverting the
integrity of the electoral process.

In my scribe here to fore, by all intent and purposes, I do not wish to
give credence to the tactics of the fraudsters at the A(F)PRC or get an
inch closer to arming them with new means of carrying on with their trade;
au contraire, my intent is to remind all stakeholders of the possibilities
and share my view of how some of these tricks could be countered or
averted.

We should bear in mind in the absence of a thorough assessment of the
election laws and regulations to identify flaws which may slant the
playing field to Jammeh’s favor and the absence of independent monitors
from the beginning to the end of the process, it becomes an uphill battle
to combat some of the tactics employed in rigging the process. The actual
independence of the IEC is one such flaw that needs to be thoroughly
examined.

Exposing the fraud and manipulation may not mean putting a dent into
Jammeh’s intent to rule by all means - by relying on the nation’s
resources and the use of force - but may help erode the legitimacy he
seeks to gain through the conduct of elections. Who knows, we may have our
own version of a Rose, Orange or Tulip revolution as has happened in
Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan in recent years.

One thing is certain, that is Jammeh had employed some of the tactics in
past elections and there is every indication he will resort to his old and
much too common ways come September 22 and beyond. We should therefore not
rest on our laurels of vindication this time round.

Let’s look at some of the tactics he could employ and measures every
principled peace and justice loving Gambian, more so the opposition
parties should take to dissipate some of the effects of a rigged elections
process:

Registry Fraud and Manipulations

The IEC has recently completed a voter registration exercise around the
country. This and previously conducted exercises are supposed to identify
who is able to cast a ballot and who is not; it is therefore fundamental
to the integrity of the elections process.

We have heard and read reports of over ninety thousand new voters being
registered by the IEC. We must not neglect the possibility that some of
those new registrants may include the names of the dead, children,
foreigners and other non-eligible persons. An inflated voter registration
will undoubtedly increase the risk of fraudulent ballots being cast. Some
of the voters may have been registered twice with the expectation that
some officials of the IEC could collude with the A(F)PRC to allow these
‘double-headers’ to cast their ballots at two different polling stations.
It is obvious the indelible inks plastered on voters’ fingers are in fact
not indelible after all.

Reports that ineligible non-citizens were fraudulently legitimized to
register and vote for the A(F)PRC have been circulating in town. There
have been complaints that some of these registrants are clearly not
eligible but have in their possession genuine Gambian documents that allow
them to register and vote, possibly with the aid of some immigration
officials. It is worth mentioning that a bulky group of immigration
officials were recently (after the registration exercise) promoted with
pay raises backdated to the beginning of the year. Rationale may dictate
this is payback for “taking care of A(F)PRC business in exemplary
fashion.”

Likewise, certain legitimate voters who are likely to support the
opposition may not have been given the opportunity to register or may have
been removed from the voter registry where they have been previously
registered especially those in certain opposition strongholds. We heard
reports of registration stations running out of essential materials like
Polaroid films to complete registrations in certain registration points.
Is it mere coincidence that some of those stations are opposition
strongholds?

To help avert the possible effects of voter registration fraud, the
opposition must insist on transparency of the registration process. This
might be a little too late now but there are steps that can be taken to
ascertain the integrity of the registry. The accuracy and completeness of
the registry can be verified by taking some simple measures. Though it
could be labor intensive and risky business, a thorough assessment of the
voter registry is straightforward. The opposition should select a random
sample of voters on the registry and interview them to double check the
accuracy of their information on the registry. Conversely, they should
select a sample of elders or willing, able and vote eligible persons and
verify if they are registered or given the opportunity to register; to
ascertain the completeness of the registry. It can be concluded that
anyone found to be omitted from the list is probably disenfranchised by
IEC.

(To be continued)

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