By Demba A.Jawo, African Press Agency, Dakar
Wednesday was supposed to be a rest day after the two weeks of official campaign for the National Assembly elections. Therefore, according to the electoral law, no one was supposed to campaign on that day.
However, it appears that President Jammeh flouted that law and instead went on to use the airwaves of the GRTS to openly campaign for the APRC candidates. In his speech on the eve of the elections, he not only advised the voters to “wisely elect candidates who would bring development to their constituencies” which everyone familiar with current Gambian political jargon knows exactly what he meant, but also said that only those constituencies that voted massively for the APRC would benefit from his “grand victory party”.
Therefore, it was quite obvious that rather than talk like a Head of State giving stately admonition to his people on the eve of such an important national event, he went on speaking like a partisan leader.
Another aspect of his speech was the “zero tolerance” stance he seems to have taken against violence during the elections, which was no doubt quite commendable. However, again knowing the trend in present day Gambian politics, it is quite obvious that the advice was specifically directed more at the opposition than anyone else. It is quite a well known fact that whenever there is political trouble in this country, it is always the opposition who become the “aggressors” and the APRC supporters are always the “victims”. As far as the situation is concerned, all opposition supporters are treated as the “devils” and the APRC supporters are always the “angels”.
Therefore, both the APRC supporters and the security forces know exactly what is expected of them. As such, they can behave any how they like towards the opposition, knowing fully well that it is always the opposition supporters who would end behind the counter at the police stations, that is; if they are lucky not to get even harsher treatment, either at the “old GPMB” on Marina Parade or at the Mile Two Central Prisons.
Indeed, the fact that he has warned the security forces that they would be held responsible and punished for any failure to “deal with trouble makers” seems to give them a carte blanche to employ their usual heavy handedness against opposition supporters, knowing fully well that it is what is expected of them.
It therefore appears that the initiative for controlling every aspect of the elections, including being entirely responsible for its security seems to have been completely wrested from the IEC. According to the electoral law, the IEC is supposed to be responsible for every aspect of election security and all the security forces on electoral duty should take orders directly from the Chairman of the IEC and from no other person. However, that does not seem to be the case in this country.
Therefore, if the elections are to pass the minimum test of being seen as free and fair, then the security forces and the Executive must be seen to hands off and allow the IEC to take charge of every aspect rather than using any little pretext to molest and harass supporters of the opposition.