Well Mr. Jobe, I will leave the issue about whether you misquoted me or not.
Now you understand what I write better than I do. I think the point is clear
to both of us that I will have no difficulty communicating to our
'uneducated' folk if I wanted to and the fact that I am responding to you
should show you that I am not looking down on you. That is not my style. But
you are forgiven for misinterpreting me. Many make that mistake.

There is no need to keep re-posting the elections results. We all know the
results. I have a ten year old boy at home who can do addition,
multiplication and percentages. What we are arguing about here is very
simple. We stated what we think was the reason for the UDP 'defeat'. You
said that our reason was absurd. I asked you why you thought the people of
Kiang voted the way they did. You never responded to that. I thought you
were going to come back and tell us what a great job Yaya was doing
'developing' Kiang to warrant the people to vote for the APRC candidate.
What I got from you, was for me to try and figure out why UDP lost. I am
confused, because I already told you several times that UDP LOST BECAUSE
APRC CHEATED BY BUYING PEOPLE'S VOTES IN ORDER TO DISENFRANCHISE THEM. I
already gave you my take for the purposes of this argument. I also proffered
other reasons for the loss which if you are interested in knowing, you can
read some of my postings sent after the election.

Again, what Hamjatta and I are saying about the vote-buying is, but for the
votes that were bought, APRC would have lost. Your agenda is to downplay the
vote-buying knowing that now you cannot deny that it happened. We will not
allow that here. You are already on record saying that votes were bought,
even though Yankuba is now denying that votes were bought. Baba Jobe is on
record saying that votes were bought. The fact of the matter is, 1000 is
more than 800. In other words, the people that did not vote, is more than
the APRC majority. We cannot run away from that. I hear you saying that
perhaps these people died, or they migrated to other constituencies or they
exercised their democratic right not to vote. You see, your difficulty here,
is you are speculating. These explanations are not facts. You cannot show us
1000 registered, kiang voters that are dead or migrated, or simply did not
want to vote. On the other hand, we have APRC stalwarts admitting
shamelessly that they bought people's cards in order to prevent them from
voting for UDP. I hope you see the logic. We have facts going against your
speculations.

With all due respect to you, I think the onus is on you to explain how APRC
turned around the 35 vote majority. You are the one who is saying that it
was not because of vote-buying. What 'COST the UDP the Kiang by-election?'.
We need facts to account for the voter turn-out; not speculation.

I frankly do not understand the point you are trying to make about Baddibu.
The last I checked, the APRC candidate was disgraced in both Salikenye and
Njabakunda (the biggest districts and the APRC candidate's and Yankuba's
home towns). And mind you, in light of APRC's shameless admission of
vote-buying, one can easily make the argument that had votes not been bought
in Baddibu, the UDP victory would have been bigger. Did I hear you
admonishing Yankuba for saying on Gambian newspapers that Baddibu
businessmen at Albert market orchestrated the APRC defeat in Baddibu because
the businessmen were buying APRC votes? Or is it one rule for Yankuba and
another one for Dampha and Hamjatta? Yankuba can stand up and accuse
hardworking Baddibunkas of criminal activity he has no proof of but we
cannot state what APRC and yourself have shamelessly admitted to? What kind
of double talk is this? I do not know any UDP supporter that has admitted
that he bought votes from APRC supporters. Prior to the elections, no
Gambian newspaper reported that UDP was buying cards. On the other hand, it
was widely reported that APRC was buying cards. If I were those businessmen,
we will sue Yankuba for slander. May be from the money they will recover
from Yankuba, they can start buying votes for October.

That aside, there is also circumstantial evidence that the elections was
stolen, simply because the staunchest APRC supporters cannot tell us what
they did for the people of Kiang to make the people of Kiang vote for them.
Let us talk about the APRC record. When we do, remember that you are dealing
with Gambians that are not gullible. Gambians that read Famara Jatta's
budget. Gambians that are fully aware that under Yaya's watch, the average
Gambian has grown poorer. Gambians that know about the corrupt activities of
the vermin running our country. Gambians that know that Yaya cannot move us
forward. Gambians that understand the role of the government and that of
Opposition MPs. You are dealing here with a Gambian that understands what is
poverty alleviation and what is gimmicks to fool gullible Gambians. Let us
talk about the APRC record that helped them 'win' Kiang.
KB

Ps: I took the liberty and remove Mr. Manneh's name from the heading,
because I thought it was a misnomer. I beg on your indulgence.
_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.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
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.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------