Dear editor,

Having read that brief, but important piece by one of your contributors in US, I am compelled to contribute, as a concerned citizen, to the column ‘Kaabefoo’. I must first and foremost register my total disappointment with certain opposition political set ups without mentioning names for now. Reasons are that all opposition parties are supposed to have one main goal which is to unseat the incumbent president, in our case it is to see that President Jammeh’s rule comes to an end.
Such a goal can never be easily achieved, with the current simple majority in place, without a united opposition. We needed such, if not one hundred percent but at leas we need seventy five percent unity in the opposition camp. So far we have less that one year to go to the polls and that opposition unity is not seen to be in place. What is wrong with the opposition parties?
Our opposition parties and their leaderships should know that they owe us, we in the opposition, a lot come the next elections, if we cannot be provided with a single candidate to unseat President Jammeh. All we can do is to vote for them, the rest is theirs.
We have all seen how our National Assembly members have betrayed us and put in place a law which is only calling for a simple majority as opposed to the earlier clause which indicated that one must score over 50 percent of the total number of votes cast before being declare the President.
Every Gambian knows that our president cannot and will not be able to poll that, and so the National Assembly members decided to make it a simple majority, thus denying us a second round of voting. What we are demanding is a fast track election; a single candidate in the opposition camp will give Jammeh an exit.
The wind of change is blowing across the continent; let us make good use of it. I therefore call on the opposition parties and their leaders to unite before the elections, democracy is about numbers. The smaller parties should join the bigger ones to make headway in the 2011 elections; no one needs to be told.
The United Democratic Party must lead and others follow to effect a change, there after you can put your houses in order.