After a perusal of some Gambian newspapers on line, I was proud of the
classy way the UDP leadership handled the by-election debacle. This is no
time for finger-pointing and second guessing. Raising questions at this
stage of the game about how the campaign should have been ran, is
disingenuous to say the least; worse if the Monday morning quarterbacking is
coming from some one that stayed mute throughout the campaign season.

I am happy that the UDP leadership put their fingers right where the problem
lies. It was a good think that the candidate was not singled out for blame.
Ousainou Darboe has been quoted as saying that the candidate did well
considering the meager resources that was at his disposal compared to the
APRC war chest. The people of Kiang that also mortgaged their souls to the
Devil, were not singled out for blame. I am glad that UDP recognizes that
the onus is on the Opposition to try and convince these people and win back
their hearts. Like Saul Khan's friend from Gambia said yesterday, farmers
have to be convinced to see the glaring inconsistency inherent in accepting
money from someone that will readily buy your vote, but would not buy your
groundnuts.

It was also a class act from the UDP to state for the record that election
day was free from hitches (by and large). Waa Juwara puts it best when he
said that the elections were "free, but unfair". Juwara recognizes that
elections are not won or lost on election day only.

As Darboe said, this is time to prepare for October. UDP shrewdly recognized
that the vote-buying spree that the APRC engaged in during this
by-elections, cannot be sustained in a countrywide election like the
presidential election. There is merit to this argument, BUT I respectfully
counsel UDP not to underestimate the vermin. Some of these people will sell
their parents to get money to buy votes at a countrywide scale. These vermin
will not give it a minute's thought before emptying our government reserves
in order to finance their elections campaign. What the Opposition needs to
do, is to assume that the APRC has all the money it would take to buy the
votes they need to sabotage an Opposition victory. Working from that
assumption, we should then devise means to safeguard our votes.

Once the votes are safeguarded, we can then tackled the issues. UDP raised
all the relevant issues during these campaigns. People trying to discourage
UDP from talking about certain issues do not want the Opposition to win the
elections. These people are in denial. They do not want to recognize the
shenanigans that were in play here. What I would counsel UDP to do, is to
challenge these people to state the issues that UDP left out. I am amazed
that we even have people on G_L that were not on the campaign trail, did not
read Gambian newspapers to know what issues were discussed, and yet theorize
and castigate UDP for not discussing all the issues. UDP should not listen
to these doubting Thomases. They pretend they are with us, but deep inside
some of them, they would rather see APRC at the helm than say Ousainou
Darboe or Hamat Bah.

Reading the reports and also talking to people privately, I also detect
another undercurrent. You have to read between the lines and possess a good
memory in order to effectively analyze the role Buba Baldeh played in this
by-elections. When Buba Baldeh paraded some UDP supporters at the state
house to pressurize the UDP MP to cross over to APRC, very few people
noticed the significance of that move. Fewer people are linking the
significance of that move to what happened in Kiang during this election
campaign. When I read reports about that visit, I was sick to my stomach.
Reason? I saw some of the most inflammatory and tribalist statements uttered
by Baldeh and his entourage. I would not be surprised if I learn that Baldeh
took the same divisive rhetoric to the campaign trail and tried to appeal to
the sentiments of the Fulas. Well, some are trying to sweep this under the
rug, but I think the Opposition need to take Buba Baldeh to task. The man is
not only violating the law of the land by his direct participation in APRC
politics. This man is using dirty tricks to split our people. We must not
allow that.

Finally, I respectfully urge elections proponents on this List and elsewhere
to not stop at asking questions and second guessing the UDP. They should go
beyond that and provide the Opposition with the necessary financing and good
ideas to defeat APRC and eradicate tyranny in our society.
KB

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