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Gambia Presidential Campaign Begins
Saturday, 12 November 2011 21:39
Yahya Jammeh
Opposition parties have complained that the 11-day campaign period is "grossly inadequate" for the elections which incumbent President Yahya Jammeh has confidently declared he will win.
Jammeh, an outspoken military officer and former wrestler who took power in a bloodless coup in 1994 and won elections two years later, is seeking a fourth term in
Yahya Jammeh
While declaring the polls will be free and fair, he is accused of running the smallest state on the African mainland with an iron fist, repressing criticism and brushing off concerns over human rights abuses, including the killing of journalists.
However he has been credited with the development of roads, schools and hospitals in the sliver of land wedged into Senegal and home to about 1.6 million people.
Jammeh, 46, will face two rivals in the coming elections, Ousainou Darboe and Hamat Bah.
Darboe, the 63-year-old leader of the main opposition United Democratic Party, won 26.69 percent of votes in 2006.
Bah, 51, is running for the third time but this time under the banner of the newly-formed United Front, which comprises four opposition parties.
"People must have confidence in the system, because inasmuch as the Electoral Commission tries its best, if the state keeps on arresting our supporters, detaining them unlawfully, we will not sit idly by and watch them do that," Bah told AFP.
"We will not surrender our victory or our rights to anyone. We will stand firm to defend our rights, and go by the rule of law; nothing more, nothing less. We are not asking for favours; let's just follow the rule of law," he added.
Ousainou Darboe, who will be running as a presidential candidate for the fourth time, also told journalists: "We will not allow any political party or any candidate whatever his or her status to interfere with our campaign programmes. The rule of law has to be respected no matter what."
A total of 796,929 Gambians have registered to vote in the upcoming election, up from the 670,000 on electoral rolls in 2006.
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Comments
In fact a bad leader would not be able to go on tour of his country. They have said many bad things about me but I don’t talk, it is you the Gambian people who respond without even realising you are responding through your support.
Those who are saying those bad things are Gambian dissidents in the West. Today the GRTS is accessible anywhere and if I go out the kind of welcome and the embracement you accord me, the West themselves wonder and ask how can he be a bad leader and yet receive this sort of embracing?
Elections in the Gambia are free and fair.
Let us assume the unlikely scenario where our opposition wins the elections, so what? We are still faced with a heavily armed soldiers with a standing force in Kanilai and he is going to retreat to this place and dare anybody to come and disarm him.
So my point is that we have passed the point of peaceful change in Gambia thanks to how Jammeh has set things up.Anyone who really knows the situation on the ground would see that the stark choice we are faced with is to accept more of the same or face a hopefully brief but confrontation. There is no other way, absolutely NONE!
My little son and daughter they don't need anything from Gambia. Thy are born in America and have first class property I bought this year cash down. I have to secure their future.
Later I will pass on my Kanilai Estate to my relatives for their good work.
This is my plan as I know many people don't want me any more after all the development I have done for Gambia.
Apart from land grabbing,the business empire from Petrol Stations to tailoring shops have put many Gambians at a disadvantage and still some fools want this slavery to continue, with some people having the audacity to call for Kingship for Jammeh! My God! What is it with us Gambians?
This is without including the various rice fields that have become obligatory of every governor of every region, the countless properties in Banjul and Kombo, most of which were seized or obtained through "persuasion".
Most of these fences can be verified via Google Earth. The Abuko Nature Reserve was fenced with an estimated 2.5 million Firestones (at the cost of D35 per stone).
The question Gambian voters need to ask themselves is whether they are going to entrust the country to this greedy illiterate who has not only stifled business, but has been responsible for the worst form of human rights abuses the sub region has seen in this decade.Do we want more?
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