The Verdict

TWO MONTHS TO PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS –WHITHER THE OPPOSITION?

                            By Adama Hawa

While the presidential elections that dealt a devastating blow to Gambia’s fractured opposition are now history, everyone is anxiously anticipating the outcome of the National Assembly elections less than two months from now. Therefore, all those concerned about the welfare of this country are hoping and praying that both the leadership of the United Democratic Party (UDP)-led coalition and the National Alliance for Democracy and Development (NADD) have learnt some useful lessons and they would avoid whatever mistakes they committed during the run up to the humiliating presidential elections which handed an undeserved victory on a silver platter to Yahya Jammeh.

However, we have less than two months to go before the National Assembly elections, and yet, nothing seems to be happening in the opposition camp. Are they still licking their wounds that they have no time for the elections, or have they just thrown in the towel and kissed good-bye to any further attempt to challenge Yahya Jammeh?

Of course, every honest person knows that instead of Yahya Jammeh obtaining a “landslide victory” in the presidential elections as his sycophants would always say, it was the opposition who lost the elections because of their failure to sustain the momentum and enthusiasm that greeted the founding of NADD in January 2006. Whether it was the greed for power or the false impression held by Ousainou Darboe and Hamat Bah about their popularity, their unceremonious desertion of NADD was no doubt responsible for the calamity that befell the opposition in the elections.

As a result therefore, all reasonable people would have expected the opposition leadership to have realised their mistake and do something in order to avoid a repetition of that in the forthcoming National Assembly elections. However, if the silence from the opposition is anything to go by, then we seem to be approaching an even worse disappointment, with the Legislature, for the first time since independence in 1965 being entirely controlled by the ruling party.

It is quite obvious to anyone who cares for the truth the more than 41 per cent of the electorate who did not come out to vote in the presidential elections did not as a protest for the opposition’s failure to unite. There is absolutely no doubt that if NADD had remained in tact, a majority of those people would have voted for the opposition, and Yahya Jammeh would have been beaten hands down by the NADD candidate.

Therefore, everyone is once again hoping and praying that this time round, both Ousainou Darboe and all those who advised him to quit NADD at that very crucial time would now advise him to look for a middle ground where his coalition would fight the National Assembly elections with NADD rather than repeat the same fatal mistake they did in the presidential elections. It is indeed not only for the good of the country, but also for the survival of the opposition, otherwise, all of them, would be dumped forever by the people as an irrelevant lot.

Indeed, any politician worth his or her salt would know that the Legislature is just as important or even more important than the presidency. Therefore, if the opposition were to control the National Assembly, then they would have won half of their battle against Yahya Jammeh’s hegemony. We have seen what recently happened in the United States when the Democrats wrested control of congress from the Republican Party of President George W. Bush, thus rendering him to be a lame duck President for the rest of his term. As a result, he has been compelled to engage them in discussions, knowing fully well that he cannot govern without their cooperation.

It is no doubt going to be a similar scenario in The Gambia if the opposition controls the National Assembly. While at the moment Yahya Jammeh has neither respect for the opposition, nor does he have any regard for the National Assembly; he sees it as a mere rubber stamp Legislature that would do anything he wants them to do. However, if the opposition were to take control of it, he would not only be compelled to recognise its power and importance, but he would also, be forced to respect the opposition because without their cooperation, life at State House could be quite unpleasant.

Therefore, the people of this country are watching the situation and if the opposition again decides to squander their chances by engaging in their personal power struggle, like they did during the presidential elections, then they would lose any shred of respect still left with them.

However, from the look of things, it would not be surprising if the ruling Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) party takes even the few seats held by the opposition and transform the country into a de facto one-party state. If that were to happen, it is certainly not going to be as a result of the popularity of the APRC or Yahya Jammeh, but as a result of the greed for power and lack of unity of the opposition leadership.