1A, Rene Blain Street, Banjul, The Gambia
Phone: (220) 4201730/ 4227442 Fax: (220) 4224601
Website: www:udpgambia.org; Email: [log in to unmask]
The Chairman,
Independent Electoral commission,
Kairaba Avenue,
Latrikunda, KSMD
14th September, 2006
Dear Sir,
UDP/NRP/GPDP Alliance declaration ahead of the Presidential election of 22nd September, 2006
The last presidential; election in 2001 was characterized by massive and widespread irregularities unprecedented in the Gambia’s long political tradition. The main opposition party – the United Democratic Party – UDP – documented scores of registration and voting irregularities in favour of the heavily militarized incumbent APRC candidate Yahya Jammeh.
During the final weeks of that presidential campaign, the United Democratic Party vehemently protested to the Independent Electoral commission (IEC) about the accelerated clandestine voter registration exercises being carried out at non designated places and at unusually odd times of the day.
After initially conceding publicly that voter legibility depended on one’s name being listed in the Master Register, Mr. Gabriel Roberts, the then IEC Chairman succumbed to pressures exerted on him (and by extension on the entire Commission) by the APRC. As a result of this pressure, Mr. Roberts adopted a very different position and declared that anyone with a voter’s card will be allowed to vote even though his or her name does not appear on the list of registered voters compiled by the Commission.
This horrendous declaration of the IEC and the catastrophic loss of confidence in the IEC’s credibility and capability to run impartial election significantly, contributed to the UDP decision to withdraw in protest from the subsequent National Assembly elections of 7th January, 2002.
In total vindication of the UDP on this issue, the High Court of the Gambia in a landmark ruling of September, 2005, upheld the application of the National Alliance for Democracy and Development – NADD – (then constituted by some leading members of five political parties) that mere possession of a voter’s card does not ipso facto vest in a person the automatic right to vote unless his or her name is on the Voters’ Register.
Interestingly enough the present Attorney General and APRC stalwart, and the IEC immediately filled an appeal against that judgment in October, 2005 confirming what everyone already knew – that Mr. Gabriel Roberts and the IEC were merely holding brief for the political interests of the IEC.
We cannot understand why the IEC in tandem with the APRC government should find it necessary to appeal the judgment. After all, in the first instance, we cannot see what constraint or difficulty would have forced the IEC to leave out thousands of names from the Master Register. We could understand a few hundreds being left out because ostensibly as a result of “ computer error”, but thousand, indeed tens of thousand cannot be attributed to the incompetence of the IEC. It is a deliberate and well calculated attempt to illegally provide non Gambians with voter’s cards after the registration exercise has long been concluded. This is not only undemocratic but totally aberrant. In the whole world it is only in the Gambia that persons whose names are not on the official voters’ list are unashamedly allowed to vote in elections.
Consequently, as we approach the presidential election, the UDP/NRP/GPDP Alliance takes this opportunity to place on record the following:
While congratulating you on your appointment as the new Chairman of the IEC, we hope that you will remain steadfast to your trademark virtues of candor, fairness and courage borne out by your highly religious and aesthetic background. We need not remind you that there have been FOUR different IEC Chairman appointments and dismissals in the space of ten years and that you and your newly reconstituted Commission have an excellent opportunity to invent a new legacy of credibility and respect for the IEC that we all look up to as one of the most important institutions safeguarding our democracy in this our beloved nation.
1. Since 1994, tens of thousands of mainly unskilled workers have migrated into The Gambia from all parts of the Sub Region. The greater number of these non Gambians have sought and obtained Gambian ID cards as well as Voters Cards to enhance their job prospects and residence status. They have now preceded even further to access the hitherto exclusive Gambia political establishments. During the 2001 presidential election, a record number migrants from the sub region voted thus distorting the political balance of power particularly in the three Kombos thereby giving Yahya Jammeh an unfair numerical advantage over his opponents.
2. It is a known fact that in Arafat Grand Yoff, in Dakar, Senegal, a committee whose membership was ethnically from Cassamance, Southern Senegal, identified and organized sixteen villages in Cassamance including Balandor, Marakesh Jola kunda and Kamayo Badjikunda specifically to campaign and vote for Yahya Jammeh.
The scale and scope of this massive political intrusion is a provocative and blatant interference in the Gambia’s internal affairs. The Gambia respects the territorial integrity of the sister Republic of Senegal and it is not in our culture to meddle in Senegalese party politics.
The UDP/NRP/GPDP Alliance would take this opportunity to remind non Gambian illegal voters waiting to crawl into our polling booths on September, 22nd that the people of Gambia deserve freely and without outside interference to elect a Government of their choice.
By a copy of this letter, the UDP/NRP/GPDP Alliance would like to appeal most respectfully to the distinguished high Commissioner of the sister Republic of Senegal to kindly convey to the Government and brotherly people of Senegal our growing concern and exasperation at the subversion of our election process by the uncontrolled intrusion of their citizens from Cassamance in Gambia elections.
The recent judgment of the Appeals Court allowing the Attorney General’s and the IEC’s appeal to the earlier ruling of the High Court barring from voting all persons whose names do not figure in the Master Register once again opens the flood gates to a repetition of this nefarious practice. Consequently, the APRC is placed in a position of advantage and this indeed runs counter to the hopes and aspirations of the Gambia people to see a free, fair and transparent election and is unacceptable to all peace loving Gambians.
The UDP/NRP/GPDP Alliance challenges the reconstituted IEC to commit itself fully not merely in words but also by action to the spirit and letter of their oath of office despite threats and pressures from the Executive as was demonstrated during the swearing in ceremony of the new members. The UDP/NRP/GPDP Alliance challenges the Commission members to execute and perform their responsibilities fairly and responsibly in the supreme interest of the Gambian people.
Yours in the service of the truth,
A.N.M. OUSAINU DARBOE
For the UDP/NRP/GPDP Alliance
Cc: - H E the Senegalese High Commissioner
Kairaba Avenue, Fajara
Justice Peace Progress
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