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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------