Manneh, thanks as always for providing succinct answers to questions posed
here relating to our electoral process. I hope you find more time to engage
us on G_L now against October 18, 2001 and help us close the loopholes Yaya
and cohorts like Gabriel Roberts and Joseph Joof want to use in order to
steal the elections.

Before I deal with the answers you gave to Malamin’s questions, please allow
me to ask you to walk us through the stages of certification of the final
tally per counting station and the eventual announcement of the results per
constituency.  I believe this is an area that has also been of concern to
many Gambians.  If you will recall, in 1996, allegations were made that the
votes were tampered with between and during transmission of the results from
the field, to Gamtel to State House. How did Gamtel and State House come
into the picture, is still a mystery to many. I thought that the IEC Offices
around the country and certainly their Banjul HQ were the only authorized
transmittal centers to the people through the public and private media.

If my memory serves me right, I think we dealt with this topic somewhat in
earlier correspondence. But for the interest of transparency in these trying
times, I respectfully ask you to walk us through the process again.

Now, turning to your answers, I feel you are overly optimistic in your
analysis. That optimism might be attributed to your familiarity with some of
the players here. I do NOT by any means want to question the integrity or
bravery of the Party agents or IEC representatives involved here. I believe
the problem is with the APRC (November 22 Movement) thugs. Like you, I
believe that some Opposition stalwarts are willing to put their lives on the
line rather than part with ballot boxes. However, that is NOT the point. The
point is what are the APRC thugs willing to do in order to steal the
elections? Would they be prepared to kill someone in order to steal the
elections? Clearly the answer to this question is yes. Remember, we are
dealing here with people that sanctioned the cold-blooded massacre of
children as young as three. For the vermin to assassinate political
opponents is nothing to them. So, having brave and honest Opposition agents
to safeguard the boxes does NOT solve our problem. We solve our problem by
covering the loophole that will allow the vermin to ambush a convoy carrying
ballot boxes. We all know that the cowards do NOT attack when they are
outnumbered. At the polling stations, they will be outnumbered. So, to solve
our problem, let us count the ballots at the polling station.

To address Gabriel Roberts’ bogus concerns that once the votes are announced
the vanquished Party’s supporters will go on the rampage, the Opposition can
agree that the results announcements will be choreographed. In other words,
the votes will be counted at the polling stations but the results will NOT
be announced until all the ballots from various stations in the country are
tabulated. That way, as soon as ballots are counted at polling stations,
agents will only inform their respective Party leaders and IEC
representatives at the polling stations will inform IEC central Office in
Banjul.

Manneh, on paper our electoral laws might be the best some observers have
seen before. Some Gambians might also be the most honest and dedicated
citizens some observers have ever encountered. Having said that, we also
know that despicable characters like Baabaa Jobe and Gabriel Roberts also
live in Gambia and they participate fully in the electoral process. Their
influence way outweighs the impact of a dozen or so honest polling agents.
We have to neutralize the vermin. I am sure you appreciate the fact that as
much as you can narrate ‘good’ experiences you had as an election official,
there are others that can narrate experiences whereby they were intimidated
by security officials and forced to part with their ballot boxes. Always
remember that the 1996 elections was declared as UNFAIR and attracted
sanctions to our country from civilized nations.

Gabriel Roberts has no good reason for reducing the number of counting
centers. His only reason for doing that is to enable Yaya’s thugs to steal
the election. The Opposition CANNOT solve this impasse with Roberts by
banking on the resolve of Opposition agents accompanying the ballot boxes or
the integrity of IEC officials. This problem can only be solved by
neutralizing the APRC thugs. The way you do that is to outnumber them at the
polling stations/counting centers. If Gabriel Roberts thinks that he will be
allowed to steal this election for Yaya, he must be a bigger fool than I
thought. Yaya is finished and anyone that wishes to stand in the way of the
overwhelming majority of Gambians, will also suffer the same fate as Yaya.
Gambians know that Roberts wants to steal the elections. We will NOT let
him. Manneh, I thank you again for your contributions and look forward to
your response regarding what transpired during the last election between
counting centers, IEC, Gamtel and State House and how we can avoid the
APRC/IEC shenanigans.
KB



>From: Lamin Manneh PF <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Election procedures: Question
>Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2001 00:48:25 -0700
>


_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask]
if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------