T
he November 24 presidential elections is now history. President Jammeh was re-elected and the opposition has lost, but not without controversy and ultimately a divided opinion on the freeness or otherwise of the polls.

ECOWAS, for instance boycotted the polls, but even the international election observers such as the African Union and Commonwealth as well as local observers who did monitor the polls raised concerns over a lack of level political playing field.

Those concerns, which are infact common in all the sincere and honest reports on the elections should be taken seriously by the government.

Anyone who cares for the truth would admit that disappearances, tortures, death threats and arbitrary detention of opposition leaders and their sympathisers and even perceived opposition supporters is not uncommon in this second republic of The Gambia.
 
Therefore the least expected from The Gambia government after the elections is to swiftly move to correct it’s mistakes as well as deliberate wrongs than waging wars on political adversaries.

This does not imply that the incidents of death threats featured in our today’s edition involving some prominent opposition have the backing of The Gambia government.

But the fact that the perpetrators are purportedly doing it for APRC demands the ruling party to quickly address the issue, else it would be hard, if not infact impossible to avoid blame.

Besides, it constitutionally behoves on The Gambia government to protect the lives and provide security to every Gambian irrespective of ones political leaning.
It is therefore very unfortunate that immediately after the presidential election, and ahead of the parliamentary election due in March 2012, such incidents are rearing their ugly head again.

For instance, there are unconfirmed reports that the political figurehead of opposition Gambia Moral Congress, Mai Ahmed Fatty has fled again after receiving threats ranging from prosecution to death by unknown persons.

Mr Fakebba Colley, the campaign manager of UDP in Kiang West constituency, Mr Shyngle Nyassi, chief propagandist and Foday Gassama of the same party all complained of receiving death threats after the polls.

These incidents only vindicate ECOWAS in its boycott of the Nov. 24 polls on grounds that the vote would not be free or fair because of, among others, a lack of press freedom, a lack of neutrality from state institutions and “an opposition and electorate cowed by repression and intimidation.”

Suppression of the rights of Gambians will not in anyway help consolidate the peace and stability of our dear mother land, The Gambia.
Disregard of democratic tenets in the prevailing fragile political environment would make us susceptible to chaos.  Therefore, threats, intimidation, and all other forms of violations have no place in a sovereign republic like ours.