- Secretary General Lamin Nyabally/ JollofNews image
The Gambia’s rubber-stamping National Assembly this evening passed into law the infamous Electoral Amendment Bill that aims to throw out opposition from participating in elections. The controversial bill, tabled by Secretary General Lamin Nyabally, was passed by the ruling APRC deputies with slight amendments.
Due to unexplained reasons, the bill could not be presented before deputies on June 23rd and 30th. It was earlier rumoured that a split within the APRC over putting the country’s democracy on sale had led to cancellation of the bill purportedly sponsored by the Independent Electoral Commission.
The endorsed bill reduced the deposit for presidential, parliamentary and local government candidates by half. That means half a million dalasi, 50, 000 25, 000 and 10, 000 for presidential, parliamentary and local government candidates, respectively.
Another twist on the passed legislation is the question of deposit refunds. Presidential candidates who gets 40 percent of the votes will be refunded. National Assembly and Mayoral candidates will be refunded provided they amass 20 percent of the valid votes cast.
The legislation that attracts anger and frustration among opposition, human rights and civil society activist maintains a portion that requires political parties to be resident in the country and allow the IEC to investigate their source of income.
Gambians are now waiting for the opposition parties’ reaction to the current development. All of them lampooned the APRC for shutting the doors to participatory democracy in a country that in the past bragged as the champion of democracy, political pluralism, the rule of law, among others.
Ends
It’s Lamin Nyabally’s turn to murky himself this time & get implicated… The Murderous Tyrannical kanilai Syndicate through its tentacles, has used its Evil rubber-stamp MPs again to throw its Bullish weight about…
This is one main reason why the opposition politicians NEED to temporarily unify & collectively take on the Murderous kanilai Killer Beast & equally Evil cohorts for the sake of us all…
On behalf of us all they have already engaged one of the Murderous kanilai Killer Devil’s tentacles, the PUPPET Evil electoral commission on the proposed judicious electoral amendments to level the political playing fields for all the peace loving citizens…
They should take to the courts next to redress for justice if their proposed electoral amendments are denied…
When denied in the kangaroo courts too, as can predictable; this WILL leave us all with NO alternative but lay & form the LEGAL BASIS for our Plan B option; to take to ALL & ANY means NECESSARY to terminate & annihilate the murderous tyrannical syndicate once & for all…
God helps & bless the collective endeavour to salvage Gambia; Ameen.
The bill shall be published in the Gazette for 30 days and then assented to by the president. Then the illegal law which has definitely usurped the mandate of the IEC can be challenged in the courts by the opposition for doing so unreasonably too, for only the IEC has mandate to increase deposit or registration fees. The case can also be taken to the community court of West Africa like the Burkinabe opposition did for better judgment should the local courts fail to remedy it.
This new bill marks the death of democracy and the birth of moneycracy. There is only one survivor to this new order ……Yahya Jammeh and it is because the central bank printed hundreds of millions of dalasi notes for him.
The only way out of this is MASS DEMONSTRATIONS all over the country. Will the opposition parties have the guts to call their supporters to the streets?
This bill is the beginning of one party state controlled by the president . This will result to constitutional monarchy where president will be life president without any possibility of electoral defeat . President Jammeh will now decide who will represent his party and who he can personally sponsor for representing each constituency . This is the end of multiple party democracy and new era of one party state. Jammeh knows if he want to use referendum to instill constitutional monarchy in The Gambia , he won’t succeed and the best way to do it is through rubber stamp parliament . This is his ultimate objective and he finally succeeded . Now what are the implications ? First , there will never be peaceful transfer of power as opposition leaders are hoping . This bill will encourage military coups , popular uprising as the only means to get rid of Jammeh. Those who continue to underestimate jammeh’s political and criminal capabilities should now wake up from their dreams and understand that the only language he understand is his own language . By all indications , Jammeh’s objective is to stay forever until such a time he handover to his son muhammed jammeh who is suffering from Down syndrome . Popular uprising should be student led which will gather international support in case his tribal military decide to unleash their terror . But the idea of change of government through electrol process is long dead with the enactment of this bill . I hope I am very wrong .
Another disheartening part of the bill is continuous de-franchise of diaspora who contribute 22 percent of GDP . With this bill been passed , political parties cannot have executive members outside The Gambia . This is basically done to entrench evil and rapist dictator in power . Even the stupid Aprc MPs are victims of their own making but their stupidity will catch up with them soon. Jammeh has finally achieved what he want. No election period . Those political commentators who still believe that going to court will help change the situation , good luck with your day dreaming . Jammeh recognize no courts but what he recognize or knows is his own language .