‘UDP rejects fraudulent’ presidential
election results
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| UDP's Ousainou Darboe: 'we'll take appropriate action' |
The Presidential Candidate of the United Democratic Party
(UDP), Mr Lawyer Ousainou ANM Darboe has described the results of Thursday’s
election in Gambia
as “bogus” and says his party vehemently rejects it, while addressing his
supporters at his residence along Kairaba
Avenue, shortly after the incumbent was declared winner.
The Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission,
Alhagie Mustapha L. Carayol declared Yahya AJJ Jammeh winner of the November 24
presidential elections.
Yahya AJJ Jammeh won 470, 550 votes (72%) of the total vote
cast. While Ousainou ANM Darboe and Hamat NK Bah, the Independent Candidate
backed by four parties known as the “United Front” bagged 114, 177 (17%) and
73, 060 (11%) of the popular votes.
Mr Darboe, did not want to speak to the press after the
final result was announced, instead, his party issued a preliminary statement
saying: “The UDP/GMC United Alliance vehemently and unconditionally rejects the
results of the just concluded Presidential Elections as announced by the
Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission.”
Appropriate action
“The results are bogus,
fraudulent, and constitute a capricious usurpation of the will of the people,”
claims the UDP and the Gambia Moral Congress (GMC) led by lawyer Mai NK Fatty.
The so-called “United Alliance”
urges Gambian citizens not to be hoodwinked by the results of such a
conspicuously flawed process and further urges the international community not
to validate the results of this preposterous fabrication. “The United Alliance shall respond to these
unacceptable results with appropriate action.”
But the statement fall short of
clarifying what “appropriate action” would mean.
Not free or fair
On the eve of the polls, the sub-regional economic bloc, the
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) announced it was withdrawing
from its proposed “observer mission to Banjul”.
It said the election process was being held amid a “climate of
fear” and that the opposition has been cowed, adding that it will not be “free
and fair”, hence the environment under which the process was being conducted
fall short of meeting the minimum standards.
No response
Yahya AJJ Jammeh noted after
casting his ballot that he “will not respond to ECOWAS, since the person who
signed the statement was a “junior official”, apparently referring to the
ECOWAS President, James Victor Gbeho.
“Well just go to McCarthy Square (now July 22nd
Square), you will find armored vehicles packed there, that shows intimidation
because it is intended to intimidate the people in that area as if we are in a
state of conflict. I am sure the same would be the case in Foni,” Darboe
alleges when asked his view on ECOWAS’s position on Gambia’s election after he cast his
vote.
Mr. Hamat Bah, the Independent Candidate was not available
for comment, but the Secretary General of People’s Democratic Organisation for Independence and
Socialism (PDOIS), Mr Halifa Sallah, whose party is one of four backing the
candidature of Mr Bah, said: “People should respect the decision of the West
African grouping, ECOWAS.”
“They do not look at who has acquired a voter card, who
voting or not voting or what the campaign is like. They look at the generality of
our institutions, they came to the country and look at all our institutions and
they have taken a position so people should respect that,” he said. “So you can ask them why they have taken that
position and they will be able to explain if they are responsible people.”
“As political parties, we have decided to take on this
government despite the fact that it is not committed to the fundamentals of
democratic principles and we know that.” “But we are taking it on to show that
it does not own the country and the people. It’s will, will not prevail.”
- Author: Modou S. Joof
The author is a Gambian journalist,
News Editor of The Voice Newspaper in Banjul and Publisher of The North Bank Evening Standard.
Follow me on twitter: (@Msjoof)
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/modou-s-joof/24/638/932 and
his
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