Culled from BBC Online

Beran

More election violence in Gambia


Opposition supporters are hopeful of victory

By West Africa correspondent Mark Doyle in the Gambian capital, Banjul
At least one person has been killed in election violence in the West African
state of The Gambia ahead of presidential polls on Thursday.

The country is normally peaceful and the death of even one person will
reverberate through society.

The election is likely to be the closest run election race in the country's
history.


Candidates
President Yahya Jammeh - Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and
Construction
Ousainou Darboe - Three-party opposition alliance
Sherriff Mustapha Dibba - National Convention Party
Hamat Bah - National Reconstruction Party
Sidia Jatta - People's Democratic Organisation for Independence and
Socialism

It sees the current president, the leader of a military coup in 1994 being
opposed by a civilian coalition opposed to any vestige of military rule.

The incident in which one youth died was monitored by a group of British
Members of Parliament, in the Gambia as election observers.

Violence

According to an MP, the election violence involved a police officer shooting
an unarmed opposition demonstrator.

The outside world knows this country as a sleepy tourist resort.



President Jammeh seized power in 1994

But that's not just a caricature.

This is indeed a quiet place.

In this election, President Yahya Jammeh, a now retired military man who
staged a coup d'etat in 1994, is facing a coalition of civilian politicians
who say Mr Jammeh remains a dictator, despite his new civilian clothes.

President Jammeh says he overthrew a lazy and corrupt government in 1994 and
he maintains that his record over the last seven years shows that he can
give the Gambia the economic development it so desperately needs.

The presidential election promises to be a close race.

Most Gambians are hoping that the political tensions here will not escalate
into further violence.

Politcal campaigning ended on Tuesday night.


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