A DEVIDED OPPOSITION WILL NOT UNSEAT PRESIDENT JAMMEH

BY LAMIN SABALLY-FORMER IEC OFFICER AND ALLGAMBIAN.NET STAFF WRITER

Looking at the results of the recently contested Kombo East by election as a litmus test for our divided opposition at which APRC Jung Conteh emerged the winner; a sober, comprehensive and uncontestable conclusion to reach is that a divided or fragmented opposition will not be able to unseat President Jammeh in the upcoming October Presidential poll.

A comprehensively, combined votes cast for the opposition is more than total votes received by the APRC meaning with a united opposition, Kombo East would have decided in Opposition favor. To simply put in an appropriate political parlance, with a united opposition behind one solid candidate, the political pendulum would have indeed swung to the opposing side. This position of mind has been succinctly exhaustively defended by many political commentators on line and the 6 page dossier on the said by election by NADD flag bearer Hon. Halifa Sallah is an exact vindication of my point.

To put it brutally bluntly, for the much anticipated political change to occur in the Gambia of which the masses are dying to see, our brave men and women in the position must put aside what ever differences separated them and come back together for the sake of cementing their unquestionable patriotism and confront Dr. Jammeh behind a one solid candidate in the crucial October presidential election. Without this, political analysts who are attuned with the currently highly charged political situation back home will concur with me unreservedly that flushing Jammeh out from State House is not tenable.

As Mathew Jallow- Freedom newspaper’s iron man indicated on his recently article on the by-election, the two fundamental questions confronting is “either NADD to join the UDP/NRP Alliances or the NRP/UDP Alliance to rejoin NADD.” Without circumlocution or spinning around the truth, these are the best relevant issues needing addressing. Mathew you deserve kudos for your blunt proposal. And for the sake of rescuing our dear motherland from the unabated political decadence, economic nightmare and sickness, social disillusionments, human rights abuse and myriads other national issues, I herby add my humble voice to the clarion call on Hon. Halifa Sallah, Hamat Bah, Lawyer Ousainou Darboe, Lamin Waa Juwara alias “Mbarodi” and Omar Jallow alias OJ to please set aside their differences and come back together in a united opposition alliance. If you fail to do this, you should be jointly held responsible for the perpetuation of President Jammeh and his APRC in power and any further sufferings encountered by the Gambian people will be partly blamed on all of you and the entirety of Gambians will never forgive our brave and gallantry opposition for their failure to help bring about a much needed change.

Information from the Kombo East campaign trail were very disturbing and excruciatingly painful to the many opposition supporters and sympathizers yearning for change. For example, while the APRC campaign team mounted sustained barrages of attacks on the opposition, the opposition camp came under heavy flag from another faction. NADD Waa Juwara for instance was reportedly heaping verbal ballistic attacks on UDP/NRP Alliance leader Ousainou Darboe thus wittingly or unwittingly fortifying and validating the APRC tirades on the Opposition.

With the divided Opposition, I can foresee the continuation of Waa’s attacks on the UDP/NRP alliances come the October Presidential which will render any opposition chances of winning exceedingly slim. The plain truth is we need one Opposition if we really are serous to boot Jammeh out of power.