Revealing PDOIS Hatched Secret Primary Plans
It has been a persistent song of the leadership and supporters of PDOIS that the best and only viable way of selecting the leader of an opposition Coalition is through a primary election. One will wonder why a small and unpopular political party like PDOIS has been adamant on primary election. The fact is that the party is confident of sweeping a primary election, and I will explain why and how. Most readers of this piece will be left crestfallen about my revelation but I can’t keep quiet any more. It’s time to vomit the truth. Yahya Jammeh’s yranny hurts!
Since 2006, the fringe party hatched a Master Plan aimed at gaming any future primary election involving opposition parties. The plan was a bait to trap heavyweight parties like the UDP to agree on a primary to elect a candidate for NADD in 2006. Once all the parties agree, PDOIS would recommend that each party sends in equal number of delegates from every constituency to the primary. Since not all opposition parties have supporters in all the districts, the PDOIS will then send their supporters to districts where parties like NDAM, GPDP, PPP or NRP have no base.
The tricky part is that these PDOIS supporters will disguise as other party supporters, singing their slogan as well as raising their flags. These disguised PDOIS recruits will then use other parties as vehicles to secure enough delegate vote for candidate Halifa Sallah.
This sinister plan was leaked to Lawyer Darboe in 2006 shortly before the NADD flag bearer was chosen. Because of this and many other reasons, the UDP pulled out of NADD knowing fully that sincerity and honesty were defeated. Lawyer Darboe had to grapple with the pain of being betrayed by the people he had respected and trusted. I owe Darboe an apology for not sounding the bell before he had invested his precious time and energy into the NADD coalition talks.
What we should ask is whether the delegate plot would see the light. Yes, it can. Even if it works, the question is whether it will translate into votes for the PDOIS selected leader. The answer is an emphatic NO.
With all their abundant knowledge and wealth of political experience, the PDOIS leaders fail to understand why politics succeeds and fails. If they understand, then they are killing the goose that lays the golden egg. Success and failure of politics everywhere hinges on connection, which is lacking within the PDOIS ranks. Every type of connection – family, friends or connections of your family/friend connection – runs and grease the engines of politics. Without connection, there is no politics. Truth be told, this is what the PDOIS leadership lacks. The party officials may not like it but this is what has bedeviled Halifa Sallah’s presidential ambitions.
I am quite sure that Baye Faals or Talibes of PDOIS are sharpening their swords ready to assault me. I’m not the least concerned because someone needs to hammer truth home even if it means causing chaos. As a member of the PDOIS’ delegate recruitment in various districts, I can’t keep quiet any longer. When this strategy was being devised, most of the so-called die-hard supporters of PDOIS were still small boys and girls or better put it political virgins.
This is why most of you are thinking that the PDOIS is a popular party and that Gambian electorate is ready and willing to vote for Halifa Ababacarr Sallah. A presidential aspirant whose father used to throw his walking stick at hawkers for selling around his compound gate at Serekunda. Do you expect the same struggling hawkers and their families to vote for Halifa? Heck no! I rest my case and wait for Baye Faals to swing on me. Then I will spill more beans. Gone are the days of deception, betrayal and selfishness. All Gambians need is a change.
Batch Samba Baldeh
Ends
This one hurts and the author’s revelation is damning. But I reserve my own bullets until I read the PDOIS rebuttal. My only problem is that I will not have time for Khalifa’s book.
Mr Baldeh , thank you for speaking up . I have written extensively about pdois deception and political dishonesty , so I am not surprise to hear their plan for the so called primary which they are so obsessed with. Mr sallah is not only electable but he has no connection with people. I am sure indocrinated and confused disciples will launch their attack . Do not mind them but stay focus .
Why are you lot preempting the discussions..? Make your claims and let others respond…Is that a fair proposition?
This is just an unconvincing claim and it is actually not difficult to expose it as absolute rubbish and fairy tale stuff, and that will be done in due course…
For now, I just want to point that there is an irony to this fantastic claim, which will raise serious questions about the UDP, if it was to be a true plot by PDOIS, but I bet you guys missed it…Bring it on…Let’s explore this a bit deeper…Over to you..
No one should worry about this strange Batch Samba Baldeh sowing seeds of discord! Article is for gullible and bin.
Explore alright while the nation suffers under a dictatorship, explore alright while fellow citizens die. we have all the time to explore, exploit and play political games.
Smart money is on unity without PDOIS
Oh…! So you would rather this fantastic fantasy is left unchallenged…? Why didn’t you come out with your “nation suffering under dictatorship ” concern when this fantasy was published..?
Yes, when lies are fabricated and presented as truth, they will be explored and exposed for what they are..
Your Croc tears for the suffering Gambians should first be shed when hatred and hateful slander is concocted against Gambians (as PDOIS Leadership are Gambians), rather than when they are explored and responded to.
PDOIS have done it’s homework and came up with credible Agendas 2011 and 2016 for Coalition talks and building UNITED NATIONAL FRONT!
Any conspiracy to alienate PDOIS in unity talks fails. Time and time again PDOIS is vindicated and Halifa Sallah is unstoppable RIGHTFULLY as ELIGIBLE AND CREDIBLE PDOIS Presidential candidate and would be great flag bearer for opposition UNITED NATIONAL FRONT!
STOP YOUR CHEAP POLITICAL TACTICS, PETTINESS, LIES, DECEPTION, FALSE ALLEGATIONS, FABRICATING MALICIOUS VILE SLANDERS AND DISGUSTING SMEARING CAMPAIGNS AGAINST PDOIS AND HALIFA SALLAH!
Time will tell; as forthcoming December 2016 elections approach already!
Aluta continua!
Relevant extracted notes from Foroyaa report August 8, 2016 copied and pasted reads!
“NRP to submit proposal for alliance to opposition body
EditorAugust 15, 2016
By Kebba Jeffang
Mr. Hamat Bah, the leader of the National Reconciliation Party (NRP), while responding to the call being made by young peopleHamat Bah for the opposition parties in The Gambia to form an alliance to remove the APRC government at the 1st December 2016 presidential poll, said the NRP agrees for a coalition and will be submitting its proposal to the body constituted by the parties in the opposition on how to go about it.
“We are forwarding our proposal to this central body of opposition parties for an Alliance. We will write to them as to how we believe our candidate should be selected and that is why I told them that they need to contact the PDOIS because that has been PDOIS’s position. They have to put them in their Committee but they should write to them first for their view on how a candidate should be selected,” said the NRP leader.
Mr. Bah said his party, as always, is ready for an alliance and will make the necessary sacrifice for its realisation.
The NRP leader said this in an exclusive interview with this reporter on Tuesday, 9 August, 2016 at his party’s office on Kairaba Avenue.
Mr. Bah, however, insisted on the condition that the NRP will not support a candidate who is less popular than theirs.
“We will not submit ourselves to somebody that our candidate is more saleable, more experienced and more credible,” said the NRP leader.
He re-emphasised that NRP will not support someone who their candidate, in comparison, is more popular, experienced and credible, noting that this has been their swan song for the past two years.
“Our party’s position is absolutely very clear about the issue of alliance or coalition or tactical unity or whatever nomenclature you may use to describe the coming together of opposition political parties. Our party has always demonstrated the desire of people of coming together and we have acted on this in 2006 and 2011. We are willing and ready to make the necessary sacrifice to make it happen,” he said.
When asked to explain this necessary sacrifice they are ready to make, Mr. Bah said in 2006, the NRP had supported the United Democratic Party (UDP), being the majority party at the time, as they believed that Ousainou Darboe (UDP candidate) has more support than Hamat Bah (NRP leader) then. He said because of this they have asked him (Darboe) to lead and that they supported him. He said again in 2011, he resigned from his party (NRP) to make a supreme sacrifice of contesting as an Independent Candidate for the United Front Coalition comprising three opposition parties namely PDOIS, NRP and GPDP. He said they are therefore ready to make such a necessary sacrifice again.
“We have always made our position very clear and ensure there is no ambiguity in what we are saying. We are looking for a candidate who can win in the election and we will not restrict anyone. In every forum, NRP always makes its position very clear. I believe that there is a body constituted by opposition parties which is trying for them to come together and they are doing their job and we will listen to them. If they have asked each political party to submit the criteria as to how they expect a candidate can be selected, we are not afraid of that as we did in 2011. So let the parties submit their proposals on the procedure in which they think a candidate can be selected. Let nobody dictate us from the outside because we know the job that we are doing. We are ready for an alliance and we will give this body the chance if our party feels that we can fulfill their conditions even if it is to go through a free and fair election, we are ready to take part,” said Mr. Bah.”
I want to begin my reaction by showing why I think Mr Batch Samba Baldeh is just another peddler of fantasy and myth intended to cast doubts on PDOIS, and like many before him, I believe he will fail because he will be exposed. Mr Baldeh claims to be a member of PDOIS who was involved in this elaborate plot, but there are indicators in his piece to render this claim questionable. I will only point out two :
Quote (1):
“Success and failure of politics everywhere hinges on connection, which is lacking within the PDOIS ranks. Every type of connection – family, friends or connections of your family/friend connection – runs and grease the engines of politics. Without connection, there is no politics.”
Quote (2):
” A presidential aspirant whose father used to throw his walking stick at hawkers for selling around his compound gate at Serekunda. Do you expect the same struggling hawkers and their families to vote for Halifa? Heck no!”
Observation: Is there anybody in this forum who can fail to see that a genuine member of PDOIS, even if he/she was ex, will not be making such claims, because this is not the kind of politicking we have come to expect from PDOIS. Linking political support to family connections or actions of family members is not the language of PDOIS, so Mr Baldeh is definitely either an impostor or a liar…
What about this fantastic fantasy of a plot by PDOIS to steal the flag bearer position from its rightful owner, I should think..Apparently, PDOIS plotted to impose impostors in the ranks of other opposition parties, who would be singing party songs, dressed in party colours and chant party mottos, to select Mr Sallah.
The problem though, is that these impostors where to represent areas where their supposed parties have no support or base…Surely, the NDAM for example, would have known that they have no base in Kuntaya, for instance, and if their Kuntaya “supporters” were to suddenly present themselves at the selection process, they would be suspicious, won’t they…? The same goes for NRP, PPP, & GPDP…
But that’s just one of the many problems that PDOIS would face to successfully implement this plot…Another would be finding people who have never been known to be associated with PDOIS in any way, shape or form, and hoping that no one know their connection to PDOIS, even in the remotest sense. Now, that is not going to be an easy task in The Gambia that we know, particularly within the political community, where everyone “knows” everyone. And all this was supposed to be achieved from the time the idea of NADD was conceived, to the point at which the selection process will be completed: all within 3months or so…Incredible…
If PDOIS was to pull off a feat like this, they would surely deserve to be in the Guinness Record Books and may be, even register as a training institution for covert operations…But there are major defects about this fantasy plot claim, as well as an indictment of the UDP Leadership, and I will show how and why….
Continued….
Malicious false article claimed written by Batch Samba Baldeh is for gullible, trying to oil GDC and APRC propaganda machinery to ensure that THERE SHALL BE NO UNITED NATIONAL FRONT for opposition parties, to ease sweeping victory of Jammeh/APRC December 2016 elections!
Beware!
Take note of this quote noted from Kairo News Editorial against Mama Kanteh”s critics advising that;
“Come on folk, our collective task should be how to defeat a man who has singlehandedly highjacked everything Gambian. Jammeh decides who should live or die.”
LEAVE PDOIS ALONE AND YOU MUST EMBRACE THEM AS THE DYNAMIC PARTY IT IS FOR THE GAMBIA OUR HOMELAND!
Fortunately, for those interested in Gambian politics, the position of PDOIS on the selection of flag bearer is unambiguous, and as clear as the noon day sun.
We recall that PDOIS first proposed a primary selection process, but subsequently modified that to a convention, as a form of compromise to achieve unity..The format of the primary is that parties would nominate certain number of their members (I’m not sure about numbers but I’m assuming it’s equal numbers) who would vote for their preferred candidate at a closed primary.
Mr Baldeh claims that PDOIS plotted to highjack this process to their advantage by deceiving other parties to nominate PDOIS members, as their own, to take part in the voting process.
A major problem of this claim would be that no party would nominate an individual for this task unless they are absolutely certain of their membership to the party. It would even be the duty of every party to make sure that they are properly and genuinely represented by their most trusted party members at the primary balloting.
And where they fail to even protect the interest of their party at this primary, then it will perhaps be right that they should not be leading the alliance, because how would they be able to protect our national interest, if they can’t even protect their party’s interest…?
But how would PDOIS succeed in infiltrating and establishing its members into the ranks of its opposition partners so conveniently that those party bosses will be fooled to select them as their own, especially considering the time available to PDOIS…? This is just pure fantasy with no substance to it and no sensible person would take it seriously.
But here is the irony. As far as we know, the UDP has had plenty of time to inform the nation about their position on the flag bearer selection, and they have done so. We can sum up their position as follows :
(1)…they prefer a party led alliance with their leader as the automatic choice for flag bearer;
(2)…they hold that primaries are inter-party mechanisms for candidate selection; not intra-party;
(3)…they expressed the fear that any open contest between opposition leaders would fragment and divide the opposition..
There has never been any mention by the UDP, of any underhand, clandestine moves to influence the selection process by any party, so if Mr Baldeh is right, then the following becomes apparent :
The UDP has deliberately withheld crucial information from The Gambian electorate that could solve the conundrum of the opposition alliance building failures, and thus, have become a collaborator and an accessory to this elaborate plot by PDOIS, to defraud the electorate..
Moreover, if the leadership of the UDP can withheld information from the public that has no negative impact on it whilst in opposition, how can they be trusted to respect and guarantee our rights to access information when in government, especially information that impacts on them negatively…?
Have you thought about that, Mr Batch Samba Baldeh and co…? What’s your defense of the hypothetical “behaviour” of the UDP, if your claim is right..?
Look my dear brothers and sisters, Gambias are not find for popular polical party. We are looking for the truth. That is why we have to go for primary election. If we are looking for popularity APRC is more than all polical pay in the Gambia. we are tired of this biggest or smallest party issue now. Opposition should agreed for primary pull so that Gambians can select candidate who they want.
Musa, primary is an idea from a confused mind . It is not feasible and sensible. Pdois leadership are bunch of confused and demented people who are obsessed with primary. Our current political party should have better ways to form alliance or coalition but not a primary. These people are political hypocrites because they refused to join the fight for electoral reforms and now they can cowardly come forward with their narrow selfish agenda which will entrench Jammeh in power. Halifa is an agent of military dictatorship.
Batch, thanks for this revelation. I suspected this plot was the case. How can a minuscule entity be drumming on about something beyond their capacity? Something is always fishy, and now we all know what it is…Shocking plot. No wonder Halifa keeps on banging on primaries..so all along, he wants to cheat and gets his way through the backdoor. Tough love Halifa, people don’t just like you.