Ebrima Ceesay's source wrote: ... the people are so fed up with Yaya to the
point that they are ready to give their precious lives, just to ensure that
the forthcoming presidential election, especially the counting and the
voting, is free and fair.
Folks,i sometimes enjoy the amazing postings of Ebrima's secret informer but
i want to tell him that Yahya did not rig the voting and counting process in
the last presidential election. The PIEC and now the Independent Electorial
commission(IEC)has one of the world's best, reliable and secured electoral
system . The voting and counting process is designed in such a way that any
irregularities at the polling stations or counting centers will be detected
immediately by polling agents or counting agents representing all political
parties or PIEC personnels such as the presiding officers, Assistant
Returning officers, Administrative Area Returning Officer and the IEC
commissioner(not the government's administrative commissioner).I don't think
all these people will be sell outs. Above all, nobody can cheat those
vigilant party representatives from the day of election to the end of the
counting.
Here is a brief outline of voting and counting process of last presidential
election:
1. The Administrative Area Returning Officers (AARO),who were technically
acting unbehave of Gibriel Roberts as Returnig Officers in each
Administrative Division, receives all voting materials from the Senior
Logistic Officer, Mr.Primpey, a contract employee from an international
agency.( Note that legally there can only be one Returning Officer in a
presidential election. However, each constituency have a Returning Officer
in a parliamentary election)
2. The AARO supply all the required election materials to his Assistant
Returning Officers(ARO). Some of these materials includes, Ballot tokens,
ballot boxes, signs and symbols of political parties and pictures of their
candidates, names of certified polling agents, voter register, plastic seals
for ballot boxes, polling station closing remark sheets, etc
3. The presiding officer have to sign that he/she received all the necessary
logistics for the election. On a separate paper, the presiding officer must
count and recount the ballot tokens issued to him/her and sign all necessary
paper works. Most of the important papers were enclosed in a tamper evident
bag with a bold serial number.
4. Then the presiding officer with two other election duty officials will be
escorted to their polling station by an assigned police officer.
5. Since Janjanbureh Administrative Area(McCarthy Island Division) was
anticipated to be a hot political spot because two presidential contestants,
Hamat Bah and Darboe, and the former president Jawara, all hails from that
region, we prepared for all worst case scenarios. Even our drivers were
specially train by the AARO and one of his assistant on how to report
election fraud on their way to counting center. The fax technician from
Gamtel was also instructed to hide all original result sheets and keep
copies for the office.
6. To avoid the Mali Experience, where fax lines were deviated to the
presidential mansion and the result altered in favour of the ruling party,
all the seven AAROs and forty five AROs throughout the country sent a
prototype of their signature to the Logistic Adverser from UK for
verification.
ON THE VOTING DAY
1. The presiding officer meets all the polling agents.
2. He/she verifies their names with his record. In Janjanbureh
Administrative Area, APRC had two agents in all the 104 polling stations and
UDP had two in all except one polling station.
3.Together with the polling agents, they open the ballot boxes, put sand or
sawdust in it, paste party symbol and picture on the candidate's box, close
the boxes with four Canadian made indestructible seals and put them in the
polling booth. These seals had numbers and everybody copy it down in his/her
own prescribe election paper.
4. Then they proceed to the table and count the ballot tokens twice or as
desired. For example, at Panchang Madifana polling station, the BALLOT
TOKENS RECEIVED by the presiding officer was 500
5. The presiding officer then issued each polling agent a head register
comprising of voters in that polling station.
6. when everybody is satisfied, voting starts
7. If lamin manneh come to vote, everybody check his/her head register for
lamin manneh's name, address, age, and card number. If all the information
on his card is the same as what is on the head register, his name will be
struck out, an indelible ink applied on his tomb and a ballot token issued
to him to vote for the candidate of his choice.
8. At the end of the day, the presiding officer with polling agents closed
the poll and sealed the last hole on the ballot boxes(the hole used to cast
votes). Every polling agent count the names of voters he/she struck out on
the head register and compare it to others . This will amounts to the BALLOT
TOKENS ISSUED to voters, for example 450. When everybody is in mathematical
agreement, they will proceed to count the BALLOT TOKENS UNISSUED and this
MUST be exactly 50. 450 plus 50 equals to 500, which taillies with the
ballot tokens RECEIVED.
9. All the polling agents signed on the back of Polling Station Closing
Remark sheet that they had witnessed the voting in that polling station and
that the information on that sheet is accurate.
10. Then they take their candidates' box, get on a vehicle and drive to the
counting center with police escort.
11. These polling agents then get the boxes down from the vehicle and sign
at the counting center main door that the ballot boxes indeed arrived
without no problem on the way.
12. After signing that, they will enter the counting center(still holding
their candidate's ballot box) and hand it over to their party's counting
agents with all the paper works from the polling station. Polling agent's
job is finish now.
COUNTING CENTER
The counting at Janjanbureh Administrative Area was held at Amitage High
School. The following people represented their parties as counting agents.
1. APRC Kekuta Camara
2. UDP Malang Camara
Abdoulie Touray
3. PDOIS Tijan B Njie
4. NRP Daddy Jallow
Buray Alpha Jallow
Before we start counting any ballot box from any polling station, these
counting agents and PIEC officials--AARO, ARO, presiding officer and one
counting assistant must check all the five seals on each box and compare it
to the records they have received from the polling agents. There was no
single discrepancy reported by any counting agent in Janjanbureh.
Then counting starts in front of everybody. Each count is verified by all
the counting agents and the AARO checks his records and verified the
following information.
1. Ballot Tokens Issued to voters in Panchang Madifana equals to the total
votes counted, 450 votes
2. That the ballot tokens unissued plus total votes counted equals to the
ballot tokens received, 500 tokens
When all the entries are correct, the ARO will certified the result and the
counting agents sign or thumbprint that they have witness the counting of
votes. Protests, if any, by candidates's counting agents regarding the
validity of votes or any other matter were to be recorded in a separate
sheet and signed by counting agent/s. In Janjanbureh, no protest or complain
was filed by any counting agent.
You see, for example, if ballot boxes were changed on the way or extra
ballot tokens dumped into Jammeh or Darboe's box, it would have been easy to
detect because the figures will not tally at the counting center. Total
Votes Counted will not equal to Ballot Tokens Issued and Ballot Tokens
Received will not be correct.
Here is a detail Result Sheet for Janjanbureh Constituency
poll ST Ballot Ballot Ballot BAH Darboe Jammeh Jatta
NO. Tokens Tokens Tokens Count1 count 1 count 1 count 1
Received unissued Issued
F45 1200 179 1021 27 423 556 15
Total Total
votes Invalid
counted Votes
1021 -
This was how voting and counting was conducted in Janjanbureh.It was free
and fair.
Sorry for any spelling mistake. I did this at a rush. It getting late here,
cheers
Lamin pf Manneh
>From: Ebrima Ceesay <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Jammeh's Cabinet in Disarray
>Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2000 16:22:26 GMT
>
>Gambia-L:
>
>Another e-mail that came from one of my sources in the Gambia.
>
>Ebrima Ceesay
>
>_____________________________________________________________________
>
>Ebrima,
>
>In the past, I personally was of the view that Yahya Jammeh can or will
>never be unseated from the presidency, unless and until physical force was
>used. But that is no longer my honest view, and thanks to the good work you
>people on the L and those of us in the Gambia have continued to do. Ebrima,
>the pressure being exerted on Yahya Jammeh these days at home and abroad,
>is
>such that I am now convinced that Yahya Jammeh WIL NOT survive it if the
>trend continued. And mark you, I am saying that Yahya Jammeh WILL NOT
>survive the pressure instead of using the words MAY NOT survive the
>pressure. This shows you, Ebrima, how confident I am, that we are now on
>the
>verge of defeating the dictator of Kanilai. Ebrima, because of Gambia-L and
>the vigilant independent media here at home, together with the aggressive
>posture of some of the guys in the opposition, I am now convinced that we
>do
>not need arms to defeat the butcher of Kanilai. If we can coordinate our
>efforts properly and more affectively, then we'll soon succeed in uprooting
>the butcher. Ebrima, I can assure you that in every section of Gambian
>society today, people have now come to the conclusion that Yahya is a
>criminal and a butcher worth booting out SOON if Gambians truly wanted the
>Gambia to remain peaceful. And more importantly, people at home nowadays
>criticise Yahya very openly and in a very strong language for that matter,
>without caring whether an NIA is listening to them. Every body is now fed
>up
>with Jammehsm and his corrupt regime to the extent that even he, Yahya
>Jammeh, knows that he cannot, no more, win an election in the Gambia. But I
>agree with Hamjatta Kanteh's proposal that in order to be on the safe side,
>the Opposition should try and form an alliance in the first round of the
>voting, instead of leaving it to the second round. Also, another thing I
>can
>safely say is that this time around, the people are so fed up with Yahya to
>the point that they are ready to give their precious lives, just to ensure
>that the forthcoming presidential election, especially the counting and the
>voting, is free and fair. And, Ebrima, since Jammeh came to power, "money"
>has been a scarce commodity in the Gambia, among the civilian population,
>but these days, the country is so destroyed by the butcher to the extent
>that even if you get the money/dalasi, you will still find certain basic
>commodities not available in the country. Why? Simply because of this BIVAC
>nonsense and also the fact that the country is very unstable these days,
>and
>as a result, the businessmen, apart from Amadou Samba and one or two, have
>refused to import anything. So, very soon, Ebrima, even commodities such as
>oil, sugar, rice and soap will be badly unavailable in the country. This is
>why I am saying that if the pressure is sustained, there is no way that the
>Kanilai butcher can survive it. But this is not the reason why I am writing
>this piece. The reason why I am writing this piece is to inform you of the
>serious "hostility" going on, among the Secretaries of States (SoS).
>Ebrima,
>the whole thing is confusing. For example, Yahya does not talk to Edward
>Singhateh these days. Edward, in turn, does not talk to Yankuba Touray
>unless when it is inevitable or urgent, because he feels that Yahya prefers
>Yankuba to him. Edward also feels that Yankuba is capitalising on his
>(Edward) strained relationship with Yahya Jammeh by sowing more seeds of
>discord between himself (Edward) and Yahya. Susan Waffa Ogoo is also
>complaining in private that Yahya has "snubbed" her and has now made Dr
>Sedat Jobe his right hand man, instead of her. Famara Jattta is also
>jealous
>that Sedat is so close to the dictator. Famara also pretends, but in
>reality
>he doesn't like SoS Musa Sillah because he sees Musa as a threat in his
>(Famara's) post. There was a talk to transfer Musa Sillah to Finance and
>Famara was mad about it. He even confided in someone that that would be
>"over his dead body". And, on the surface, some of them talk to SoS Sarjo
>Jallow but they've never trusted him in the first place, given his past
>MOJA
>links. One of the SoSs even said that the fact Dumo Saho had been
>"arrested"
>on the suspicion to tamper with State Security had confirmed his fears that
>Sarjo Jallow should not be trusted. Meanwhile, Isatou Njie-Saidy, Therese
>Ndong-Jatta are all busy looking for jobs abroad. Abdoulie Sallah is
>withdrawn or reserved and would even resign on purported health grounds if
>he was not afraid of the butcher. As for Susan, she is so fed up with Yahya
>Jammeh and, privately, she said she wouldn't even "care" if the dictator
>was
>to sack her. She said Yahya Jammeh been "hostile" towards her, because she
>told him her honest opinion that Mr Orlando was not a straight forward guy.
>So, Ebrima, this is why I keep telling you that this regime is almost
>defeated. Take my word, because I am an insider. Anyway, I'll stop here and
>do some office work.
>________________________________________________________________________
>Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
>Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
