There are a few occurances that happened in Faji Kunda around election time
that no one seems to be raising.
They are:
The lose of communications between IEC and everyone else for about two
hours on the night of 18th between about 8.30pm and 10.30pm.
The extensive power cut covering the same time period.
The celebrating of Jammeh's supporters who were chanting he had won from
about midnight. Prior to this they had been very quiet and didn't seem to
expecting victory.
I don't live in Gambia but I was there for a month leading up to the
election. I left on the 20th. Due to malaria I was unable to post this
report until now. I will list events that concern me (and the friends I was
visiting).
I spent my time in Faji Kunda and URD. Most of the people I visited were
farmers or the children of such. A
fair number were PDOIS supporters, but
some were UDP and the odd one NRP, and one actually APRC, or their family
was. Most of the younger ones were educated to at least primary 6 level,but
few of the old ones had any schooling.
I travelled between Basse and Serre Kunda a couple times proir to the
elections by van. Almost every van I travelled on, most of the passengers
were very anti jammeh. I didn't start any political conversation, but when
I was asked what I thought of Gambia, I just replied that the people I met
were good, but roads and poeple's living standards seemed worse than a few
years earlier. The usual response was an anti-jammeh ditribe and an
assurence that he would be gone come the election. Only once did any
passenger speak in support of President Jammeh. I know this is not a very
representative way of polling the mood the electrolate. I could see no
reason why people would be so open about expect
ing a change of president if
there was not a likely chance of such. I was also surprised that they were
so open to a stranger.
Certainly my friends were all predicting an opposition win but as they were
pro-opposition, I tried to get others views. I did spend a day in a
compound of APRC supporters. They knew that I had not been impressed by the
situation in The Gambia, and were will to concede that APRC was not an
ideal government. Their concerns with the opposition centred around the
alliance of UDP with PPP, from one or two I had the feeling that if the PPP
had not been in the equation they may have voted UDP. They were not sure of
an APRC victory. Admittedly they did have other APRC supporters dropping
all the time predicting a 90% win for Jammeh. I did not feel it was a good
time to raise issues such as foreign loans, etc with such die hard
supporters. When I left this compound there were a large number of green
f
lags on nieghbouring compounds.
I saw mostly green flags on buildings fronting main roads in sere Kunda and
surrounding districts. Especially on Police posts, gamtel offices and other
government or semi government buildings. I also saw open backed 4 wheel
drives with soldiers standing in the back with what I thought to be very
large mounted machine guns, these could have been anti aircraft guns that
other postings reffered to, but the noozles were definitely being pointed
horizontally and swung from side to side. They scared the hell out of me,
and other people around me didnot look too relaxed.
From about the 10th or 11th there was definite feeling of unease in Faji
Kunda. On one night we could hear gun fire but could never find out what
had happened. This was the night after an UDP supportter had been killed.
The compound I was staying at sent all their children back to the bush, we
rented a van and loaded it up with about
twenty children and a couple of
women to supervise. I think other compounds did the same because after the
13th I saw many fewer children in the nearby streets.
For the week prior to the election people seemed very tense. There was
nothing specific, just rumours flying around. There was nothing on the TV
or radio that seemed to reassure people. The electricity supply was very
erratic so that was not a good source of imformation. But when we did have
power I noticed that there was not equal coverage. Certainly every party
got about 5 or 10 minutes a night but President Jammeh's rally or journey
through Gambia got half an hour every night and the hype surroundding him
was incredible. Looking at the coverage as an outsider it was overwhelmimg
pro-Jammeh. Where I live no government would stand a chance of getting away
with such a bias coverage.
On election day Faji Kunda was very, very quiet. It was like walking
through a gho
st town. Usually people are sitting outside the compounds,
kids are playing in street and people are everywhere. Except at the polling
areas there was noone around. The polling booths were quiet, with people
standing waiting to vote, no conversation just waiting. The people I stayed
with left to vote at 7am and returned at 1pm. They waited about 5 and half
hours to vote. The polls closed at 4pm but the people in the queues at 4pm
were permitted to vote so the actual voting finished about 6pm or later in
Faji Kunda.
We settled down to a night of election results watching. Surprisingly we
had power all day until about 9pm. The TV coverage started off very well,
for once GRTS should be given credit for a professional piece of work.
There were representatives from all the parties bar one. There were
political commentors who seemed to be uncensored. The coverage started off
with summarising events and listing the parties and descr
ibing how the
coverage would proceed. About 8.30pm the first two lots of results were
announced. Then we were told more were coming shortly. Then technical
difficulties were announced and GRTS switched to a music program. 15
minutes or so later, TV returned to election mode and said that all
communicatios with IEC had been lost. Then the power went off. We switched
to radio only to get the same message or music. From who we could call it
seemed that power was out in all of Sere Kunda and Banjul, but I could not
be definite. At about 11pm power returned, but still only music on the TV.
Shortly after communications were restored and results begun coming thru.
I'm going o have to stop now. I will continue later if anyones interested.
If you feel I'm rambling I'll shut up.
But to summarise, I don't believe the results. Somehow a rort was pulled.
I'm very suss about the power cut and lost of communications. Anyone know
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