That's what I say. My Texarcana churchman tells me there's no more useless detritus than the residue of incinerated refuse. Give us a break already PDOIS. We are not interested in the merry go round. We're sick and tired of it. We wanna play golf now. Caesar, I hope UDP/UK takes our counsel into advisement and ignore these lazy bums at BuDOIS sek.. Haruna. -----Original Message----- From: Ousman Ceesay <[log in to unmask]> To: GAMBIA-L <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Mon, Aug 16, 2010 1:14 am Subject: Re: PUBLIC NOTICE BY ADMINITRATIIVE SECRETARY OF PDOIS Thus the merry go around continues. In a few days UDP-UK will come out with a press release dissecting this PDOIS press release. The two entities are talking pass one another. The ghost of NADD's disintegration continues to haunts opposition unity. These guys refuse to bury the hatchet and start politicking. Yahya is going to clean their clock come next year, while they hackle over who did or didn't do what in 2006. It is politics: get over it already. Sent from my iPhone On Aug 15, 2010, at 9:50 PM, Modou Nyang <[log in to unmask]> wrote: PUBLIC NOTICE BY ADMINITRATIIVE SECRETARY OF PDOIS Let’s draw lessons from NADD and move on to address the current demands for democratic change The Central Committee of PDOIS has reviewed the content of the debate surrounding the Press Release No.3/ 2010 issued by PDOIS. It took note of the fact that no political party which was or is associated with NADD had issued a Press Release to rebut the position advanced in the Press Release. This is understandable since all those who served as Members of the Executive Committee or the Technical Committee of NADD knew the processes that were undertaken to establish NADD and why it was unanimously agreed to register it. Since no political party or leader has disputed that the registration of NADD was mandatory and was agreed unanimously there is no need to make the relevant documents public. However, since the supporters of one of the political parties hold a different view and have chosen to issue a statement as a reaction to our Press Release I am asked to issue a public notice to request that they appoint an Independent legal practitioner to whom the relevant documents would be forwarded for review and pronouncement of an independent opinion whether the parties had agreed for candidates to contest under NADD or not and for NADD to be registered or not. PDOIS would want this opinion to be made public by the Independent legal practitioner and would concede for such opinion to be final on this matter. This will confirm whether some executive members were either ignorant of the content of the parent document they have signed as well as the supplementary processes they have endorsed, which are all sealed in black and white or are being deliberately misrepresented by a political constituency that is ill informed of what transpired, while they the leaders turn their back. The Central Committee advises all those who want to undertake the venture of seeking an independent opinion to take permission from the executive Committee of the party they support before they select the Independent legal practitioner of their choice. The Central Committee of PDOIS holds the view that politics is about interest. It has never condemned and will never condemn a political party for leaving NADD. Parties have a right to ally with other parties or go on their own. If there was second round of voting there would not have been any need to forge an alliance for the first round of voting. Each would have been able to test its strength, form an Alliance in the second round if they consider it tactically or strategically feasible. Without joining the debate, allow me to say that NADD was a highly structured Alliance with an executive committee comprising two members of each member party. Decision was based on the principle of Unanimity which means that each executive member had veto power. The relevant portion reads: ‘‘Decision making at all levels of the committees of the alliance shall be based on the principle of unanimity provided that matters of procedure shall be determined on the basis of simple majority of the delegates present and voting. In the event of the need to break an impasse the delegates may agree unanimously to make a decision by consensus.’’ The coordinator had no voting powers. He had neither an original nor a casting vote in case of an equality of votes. He could neither reject nor impose a decision on the executive. Quorum required the presence of the representative of each party. All NADD documents before and after its launching started with a concept paper which was drafted and submitted to a Technical Committee comprising two appointees of each party. I was personally involved in the work of the Technical Committee. I know some parties were represented by former Permanent Secretaries and people with doctorate degrees. After vetting by the Technical Committee, draft agreements were then given to the members of the Executive Committee to take to the Central or Executive Committees of their parties. Parties were required to get their own independent legal advisers to advise them whether to endorse the documents and processes leading to the registration of NADD. No executive member of NADD will ever say that suggestions were made for documents to be given to independent legal advisers and were refused by Halifa the then NADD coordinator. Halifa did not have any veto power. NADD leaders would have been very naïve to allow one person to wield power that was not provided by any provision of the memorandum. The fact of the matter is that when the executive decided to submit the documents to register NADD, Halifa was in South Africa attending a meeting of the Pan African Parliament. If this is incorrect a member of the executive should have an interview with the media to prove us wrong. In fact, Halifa raised certain objections on the unfinished businesses prior to registration and told the Executive that such matters should have been considered before they submitted the documents for registration. He had to do a follow up with the IEC which gave rise to the formulation of draft rules on alliances which were forwarded to the members of the Executive Committee for the consideration of their parties. He has always told them to leave sleeping dogs lie since he does not want to undermine the integrity of people who had worked so hard to narrow differences just to create a viable alliance but would not hesitate to defend his integrity if the need arises. Those who understand the ABCs of the Elections laws would understand why an alliance would have a Name, Emblem, Motto, Colour and a Constitution. Those are all instruments for the registration of a political entity to contest elections. We hope the UDP leadership will step in to guide their membership in the Diaspora who are compelling us to divert attention from the APRC to focus on another opposition party. This is counter productive. PDOIS as a party has worked under the Jawara regime, is working under Jammeh’s regime and would work under the government of any elected president of the country. It is not our sovereign right to disqualify anybody from seeking the mandate of the people. Those who support the UDP and PDOIS should spend their precious time to suggest ideas, raise funds and promote the agendas of their parties in order to win the hearts and minds of the people. Politics is not about exchanging angry invectives which make the voter become apathetic. It is sending positive messages to the voter to win their hearts and minds. To make matters short the some supporters of the UDP interpret the Memorandum of Understanding which established NADD their conclusions do not harm PDOIS’ political direction. Let us put it this way. According to the UDP supporters NADD was not supposed to be registered. However they acknowledged this portion of the memorandum ‘‘The selection of the candidate of the alliance for the presidential, National Assembly and Council elections shall be done by consensus; provided that in the event of an impasse selection shall be done by holding a primary election restricted to party delegates on the basis of equal number of delegates, comprising the chairman, chairwoman and youth leader of each party from each village/ward in a constituency.” If we accept their premise that NADD was not supposed to put up candidates it would mean that the primary that would have been conducted would not be any different from what Agenda 2011 is calling for. We therefore hope that such people would encourage their party to endorse Agenda 2011 and move on with their campaign on their own platform to prepare the ground for a primary that would select one opposition candidate for the 2011 presidential elections. Furthermore as the desk officer responsible for monitoring day to day party matters I would like to convey to all PDOIS members, supporters, sympathisers and those who yearn to live in a democratic society that PDOIS has subscribed to the Memorandum of Understanding establishing the Inter Party Committee. The PDOIS has passed a resolution on Inter Party relations which should not collect dust and it reads: On the exercise of political rights The PDOIS Congress, Being cognisant of the fact that the Gambia is a sovereign Republic and that sovereignty resides in the people; Acknowledging that the authority to lead must be derived from the consent of the people; Taking note of the fact that it is the right of each sovereign Gambian to take part in the management of the affairs of the country either directly or through chosen representatives; Noting that representatives are chosen through a free and fair voting system; Bearing in mind that each Gambian has a right to form or belong to a political association; Taking note of the legal provision that political parties are mandated to shape the political will of the people by disseminating their political, economic and social programmes; Recalling the code of conduct adopted by all political parties in the Gambia on 6th February 2006 which calls for the respect of the rights of all other parties to campaign freely and to disseminate their political ideas and principles without fear; Therefore resolves, Ø to educate all its members to understand their constitutional and legal rights and refrain from interfering with the rights of others; Ø to cooperate with all political parties and civil society organisations to ensure that the constitutional and legal provisions as well as the code of conduct governing the exercise of civil and political rights are respected and implemented by the state and all citizens; Ø to contribute to the realisation, consolidation, protection, preservation and expansion of the sovereignty of the people; Ø to uphold and defend freedom of association and freedom of expression and further contribute to ensuring that the will of the people is not fettered in any way; Ø Promote the establishment of a genuine multiparty system in the country to ensure that no restriction or hindrance is imposed on any party from exercising its political rights in the country. Secondly, PDOIS has a code of conduct which binds its members. The central committee calls on all members to abide by it in their political engagements. The code of conduct for PDOIS members is as follows: A PDOIS member is a community oriented person. He or she must take interest in every thing that takes place in his or her community; He or she shall attend all activities people conducted in his or her community, such as community meetings, burials, etc, as long as the competing responsibilities and priorities permit; A PDOIS member should clarify issues for people and should seek more ideas if he or she finds himself or herself ill prepared to make informed interventions; A PDOIS member should strive to persuade rather than impose his or her views on others; A PDOIS member shall not trade insults with insults or get angry at opponents who refuse to understand one’s position; on the contrary, one should display integrity and maturity in attitude at all times and give clear explanation in response to all hostile attacks on the integrity of the party so as to win over opponents or neutralise them; A PDOIS member should be convinced that public office is a position of service and not a position of privilege; that election campaign is not a war between rivals for the golden fleece, but a time to enlighten the people so that they could be well equipped to choose competent public trustees; A PDOIS member shall always strive to gain clearer ideas so that one could have the confidence to clarify issues and thus earn the trust and confidence of the voter. A PDOIS member should strive to work to his or her optimum in the service of the party and country, irrespective of whether others are doing their share or not. A PDOIS member should see himself or herself as equal to all other members and should not compromise with or ignore any practice that would harm the interest of the people. A PDOIS member of a branch must: Ø give personal attention to all volunteers; Ø show enthusiasm at all times; Ø inspire people and try to make them active; Ø develop a team spirit among volunteers; make them feel wanted, encourage a sense of belonging, maintain personal contact with voters, listen to their difficulties and keep them motivated; Ø identify consistent volunteers who may prefer to be members. We hope all those who support PDOIS are aware of the task ahead of us and the sincerity, discipline and maturity it requires to win the trust of the people. To conclude PDOIS is to commence a cadre training programme on Monday, August 2010 for a period of 1 month. To enable our membership abroad to benefit in this fast track training initiative for membership, an on online training programme shall be conducted along side the home based training programme. All those who are members and supporters who have not sign up for the training programme could send their mails to me, Suwaibou Touray, at the address below before Monday,16 August 2010. Your Compatriot in the struggle For Liberty, dignity and prosperity, Suwaibou Touray Administrative Secretary ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤