Breaking News:Over 50,000 Casamance Voters Hosted At The Gambia College and other schools!
Breaking News:Over 50,000 Casamance Voters Hosted At The Gambia College and other schools!
_1607012_banjulap300.jpgBreaking News:Over 50,000 Casamance Voters Hosted At The Gambia College, Gambia High School, Brufut, Bakoteh, President Award Scheme Hostel and Other Places in the country!

                    An IEC Official Confirms The Presence Of The New Batch of Casamance Voters Into The Country-While Hinting About Late Night Secret Registrations...
                            
           By Our Own Roving Reporter
 
Casamance Voter Ousman Sanneh and his Wife Alimatou Gibba Told The Freedom Newspaper Reporter That They Were Ready To Vote Come Election Day!!!

With Barely few days to Gambia's Presidential Elections, thousands of cross border voters mainly from the Southern Province of  Casamance are currently being hosted at the Gambia College, The Gambia High School, Bakau Primary School, Bakoteh Community Centre, The President Award Scheme Hostel, Brufut School, Brikama School and many private homes in the tiny West African country, the Freedom Newspaper can authoritatively reveal. Our source who met these non Gambian voters said the number of non Gambian voters could be close to 50,000. These Casamance voters are treated by the Jammeh government as fleeing "flood victims" from the troubled region of Casamance. In a bid to accommodate these large number of foreign voters said our source the government had with immediate effect ordered all schools across the country closed until after the nationwide Presidential elections. Usually, Gambia's schools academic year starts in September, but this time around the government for some explained reasons had decided to shut down the entire school system. Sources hinted that such a move was calculated to accommodate the cross border voters.
Careyol IEC.jpgmr__ebrima_silla_sanneh.jpgsarah_grey-johnson.jpg
Chairman Carayol       Commissioner Sanneh    Commissioner Grey-Johnson

The Freedom Newspaper after receiving the said news tip off assigned its Reporter to visit the said schools across the Greater Banjul Area where he met the said Casamance voters. Our reporter who visited the Bakoteh School and the President Award Scheme Hostel  said most of the Casamance voters were ready to vote in this week's elections as they displayed their voters cards to him. One of the voters who identified himself as Ousman Sanneh said they were brought into the country by a government truck over night to come and vote. 30 year old Ousman Sanneh said he and his wife came together and will vote come election day. When asked how can he vote when he was not legally resident in the Gambia and was not a citizen, Sanneh said the government assured him full support and protection during his stay in the country and by acquiring our national document  automatically makes him a Gambian subject. He says the President hailed from their village and there was no way that he can turn down a support request coming from the President's  end at this hour. Sanneh said he was optimistic that the President was going to sweep the polls, as the number of Casamance voters in the Gambian soil was enough to pave for Jammeh's victory. Like Sanneh, his wife Alimatou Gibba was also confident that the Gambian leader was assured of victory come election day. Madam Gibba told the Freedom Newspaper roving reporter that they came into the country under the pretext of being flood victims, but were indeed here to vote. She shown me her voters cards during my encounter with her.

The cross border voters were mainly men and women. During the day, they interact with the public, but at night they settled at the hosting grounds, said our source. The country's political leaders in recent times raises concern over the mass registration of non Gambians.

According to sources close to the IEC, the country's main electoral body the registration of  Casamance natives was still going on in these public schools, as some of the new batch of Casamance voters came without voters cards. The Gambia College, Bakoteh School and the President Award Scheme Hostel were identified as major registration centres. The government continued my source was working hand in hand with the IEC team to facilitate the registration of these non Gambians. An official of the IEC who confirmed the story told this paper that there was bound to be major rift election day as there was no way that these non Gambians in their thousands to be allowed to vote by polling agents whose job according to him was to protect electoral fraud. The IEC official said the state had twisted the arms of the Chief Justice and its staffers to allow clandestine voters whose names never featured on the main electoral register. The IEC official who wished to remain anonymous says the elections had already been rigged and rendered incredible. He also confirmed seeing the Casamance voters in the mentioned public schools.

The IEC in its 2005 voter statistics indicated that the country's voter population was 569,540. Below is a graphic picture of the statistics. Going by the said figure, one can conclude that the voter population was little over half a million people.

VOTERS STATISTICS AS AT AUGUST 2005

But with the latest registration of Casamance voters continued our source, the voter percentage was bound to increase.The source said the IEC current records were far more than the said figure released by the electoral body in 2005. The IEC insider says they could not account for the real figure of voters at this hour until the guest voters cast their votes. The insider says releasing the actual figure at this hour might not represent the true picture of the actual voters. But the insider insists that their were more than 50,000 new Casamance voters lined up to vote.

The Commonwealth has sent a team of election observers to  the Gambia. While the observers are busy touring the country, the ruling party is at this hour inviting guest voters from Casamance. An election observer who spoke to our reporter says she was alarmed by the feed backs she received from people she met regarding the cross-border voting. The observer says their job was to monitor and document all voter fraud they witnessed or received from credible sources on the ground. The election observers were assigned to various parts of the country.

Meanwhile, people are being restricted from visiting the Gambia College campus and other places where the Casamance voters were being hosted. A team of security agents were tasked with the responsibility of screening visitors at the said places. Our source also hinted that the cross border voters were behaving with impunity as they bragged that nothing was going to stop them from voting. Meanwhile, security has been beefed up around the country. Interior Ministry official sources say if all plans went well all borders would be closed on Thursday night. Elections are scheduled to take place on Friday September 22ND.

The editor can be reached at the following email addresses: editor@freedomnewspaper.com or panderry_mbai@yahoo.com If you know that it is happening or is about to happen, please contact us. The Freedom Newspaper is your leading and most authoritative Newspaper. We have the required professionals to serve you round the clock. At Freedom, we mean business.



Posted on Monday, September 18, 2006 (Archive on Monday, October 30, 2006)
Posted by PNMBAI  Contributed by PNMBAI
Return