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Momodou
Denmark
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 Posted - 20 Oct 2007 : 22:25:58
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FOCUS ON POLITICS
1987 General Elections - A Three Way Fight
Could PPP Conduct Free and Fair Elections?
With Suwaibou Touray
We have been focusing on politics in this column. We have followed the narration of political events from pre-colonial to the post independence era. We have just completed the narration of events for the year 1986. In the last edition, we have dealt with the emergence of PDOIS. We stopped where we quoted the leadership as having committed themselves to collective leadership.
Let us continue from where we stopped.
Records have shown that the 1987 presidential race was a three way fight. Mr. Dibba and Sir Dawda had a straight fight in 1982 and according to the Torch; this has given some indicators which one can use to make projections.
According to the Torch, the one variable is the expected new in road that Mr. Camara was projected to make in several regions, such as the URD and the MID, given the pattern of voting in the last presidential elections. The Torch predicted that Camara would lift off from Mr. Jawara’s majority rather than from Dibba’s vote.
Records also show that Sir Dawda polled 26,071 votes in URD and 35,840 votes in MID in the 1982 presidential elections. According to the predictions, the GPP leader was expected to easily bite off more than 1/3 of the votes there from Mr. Jawara. In their hypothesis, if that happens, Mr. Jawara would be at a disadvantage to win the presidential race.
In the Baddibus which was considered as the bastion of the NCP, the largest opposition grouping at the time was predicted to win about 50% of the votes in the region. Sir Dawda had polled 67.15% of the votes cast there 1982 but many were critical of the outcome because of the lack of legitimacy for an election that was held during a state of public emergency.
The prediction was, if the NCP leader could retain his votes that he polled in 1982, he might win the presidential election. But if that fails, observers said, then Sir Dawda would still be re-elected but only with a simple majority, meaning that he would be a minority president.
By January 1987, the date for the general elections was set and parliament dissolved. The campaign had already heightened throughout the country. The PDOIS continued their sensitization during the period but did not put up a presidential candidate. Tension was said to be high everywhere.
The issue troubling the Republic at the time were numerous but that the main issues were the unemployment (mass lay offs), the inability of the Cooperative Union to buy farmers’ produce after a concerted effort to encourage them to produce more, the ERP (Economic recovery Programme), the Senegambia Confederation and the Banjul - Serekunda highway. The condition of Banjul roads also became an issue in Banjul because of the unending sewerage project and of course the high prices of commodities etc.
According to reports, despite the incumbency of the PPP at the time, the attacks from the many opposition camps petrified and greatly obsessed the ruling party about their defeat in the forthcoming polls and as a result, they had adopted what the Torch observed as “draconian measures” vis-à-vis the opposition political parties.
According to the Torch, the opposition as represented by the NCP, GPP and the newly emerged PDOIS were to all indications geared towards what they described as “tough and unyielding fight.”
According to reports, as the campaign got heated, a candidate like Assan Musa Camara was very confident that success was awaiting them at the next turn. The opposition had cried for free and fair elections devoid of rigging and unnecessary provocations.
The reports had it that during this period of campaign, the president was booed by youngsters at Serrekunda as he was driven back from Banjul International Airport when he went to see off President Abdou Diouf at the end of a two day summit of the OMVG held in Banjul. This became the hottest news flash in town that week, an indication that Jawara’s popularity was on the downward ebb, The Torch observed.
According to the Torch it was a common fact that PPP meetings and rallies were not as jam packed as they used to be in the past.
At this point, the NCP issued what they called memoranda which embodied a code of conduct for holding free and fair elections. It reads;
“If Sir Dawda wants a ‘free and fair’ 1987 elections, the NCP is taking the opportunity now to call on him in the name of justice and fair play enshrined in our multi party democracy, to adhere to the following codes of conduct for the political campaign and election now that parliament has been formally dissolved.
1. Preserve and maintain the national integrity and party-political neutrality of Radio Gambia. Broadcasts of party political news meetings, rallies and other activities must reflect the multi-party system that Sir Dawda claims exists in the country. Press releases like this one should be given the same radio coverage as press releases from the PPP Bureau.
2. An arbitration committee may be necessary to ensure a more rational allocation of media time to all the contesting political parties.
Moreover, each and every candidate nominated for the office of President, must be guaranteed media time on the Radio Gambia equally.
The leader and Presidential candidate for NCP takes this opportunity to offer himself ready to challenge Sir Dawda, or whoever will be the PPP’s presidential candidate for 1987, to a debate on Gambia’s economic situation, over Radio Gambia, live.
3. No government, parastatal, military, diplomatic, or other official vehicle is to be used by or in support of any political party candidate during the campaign or on polling day. The NCP and the Gambian people witnessed abuses of official vehicles in 1977, 1982 and 1985 (Basse by-elections and our tolerance has been over stretched to the very limits of endurance. In 1987, the NCP and the Gambian people will not stand idly by in the face of these provocations. Nor can the NCP or any responsible Gambian citizen guarantee to restrain the public from administering any appropriate road side justice that righteously flows from such provocations.
4. Government civil servants, parastatals, especially GPMB, GCBD, GUC, Commissioners (especially in WD, URD and chiefs are reminded that their role is to serve whichever government is elected into office. Consequently, they are warned not to participate or interfere in the due process of the elections beyond their legal and civic duties. The electoral interference, intimidations and harassment that subverted the 1977, and 1982 elections were even more blatant at the Basse bye-election. These corrupt and highly irregular electoral mal-practices will no longer go unchallenged in 1987. Officials who are foolish enough not to heed this solemn warning must be prepared to accept the full consequences for any road side justice that righteously flows from such provocations.” The question that remains to be answered since 1965 is whether the ruling PPP could hold a free and fair elections.
See next edition as we advance into the 1987 presidential and parliamentary elections.
Source: Foroyaa Newspaper Burning Issue
Issue No. 103/2007, 3 – 4 September 2007
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A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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