GAMBIA: President Yahya Jammeh is tipped to be re-elected in Gambia - a West African tourist hotspot known for rights abuses and poverty

Record ID: 577743

  • Title: GAMBIA: President Yahya Jammeh is tipped to be re-elected in Gambia - a West African tourist hotspot known for rights abuses and poverty
  • Date: 25th November 2011
  • Summary: BANJUL, GAMBIA (NOVEMBER 24, 2011) (REUTERS) PEOPLE QUEUING UP TO VOTE AT POLLING STATION CLOSE OF PEOPLE QUEUING VOTER ID CARD WOMAN IN WHITE VEIL CASTING HER VOTE OFFICIALS CHECKING ID CARDS MARBLES USED IN ELECTORAL PROCESS IN BAG (SOUNDBITE) (English) ADJI LOUISE DIOP, BANJUL RESIDENT, SAYING: "This vote, we want to vote here in Gambia. We think that if we vote
  • Embargoed: 10th December 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Gambia, Gambia
  • Country: Gambia
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA3UV7XINKZO3Z3HDZ82JJZ0NJW
  • Story Text: Gambian President Yahya Jammeh predicted a comfortable victory in a poll on Thursday (November 24) which West African regional bloc ECOWAS said has been marked by the intimidation of opposition groups and voters.
    Mainland Africa's smallest country is a popular tourist spot known for palm-fringed tropical beaches but also for widespread allegations of human rights abuses and crippling poverty.
    Nearly 800,000 Gambians are registered to vote in the election pitting Jammeh against two opposition rivals.
    "This vote, we want to vote here in Gambia. We think that if we vote, we will have more in development of this country. Because we have no place or no country to go, we have just here, here is Gambia. And we think that if we vote, the man you know that is fit, .., I think that everything will be okay," said a woman queuing up to cast her vote, Adji Louise Diop.
    Jammeh, the 46-year-old former army coup leader told journalists that he was confident he was going to win with a landslide, as he voted in the capital Banjul.
    "I've done for this country more in 17 years than 400 years of British misrule. No western country can tell me about democracy. What matters to me is Africa and the people of Africa and my country, and God," Jammeh said.
    He also insisted that any post-electoral violence will not be tolerated.
    "Remember we got one of our militants killed, and day before I think yesterday we almost had three ladies killed by the same party. So the principle of maintaining peace will not be compromised. Because without peace and stability African will never go forward. And I will never compromise peace and stability at the altar of so-called democracy," Jammeh said.
    Many analysts believe Jammeh's election to a new five-year term is a foregone conclusion after 17 years of rule that began with a 1994 coup and have been marked by lethal crackdowns on protests, mass arrests of opponents and military reshuffles.
    "Do I look like a loser? There's no way I can lose. Because the Gambian - unless you tell me that all Gambian people are mad. People, there are no people do not want development. But in the event that I lose, it's the verdict of the Gambian people. I go by the verdict of the Gambian people and by nobody else. I'm here for the Gambian people. At the end of the day if the Gambian people say 'we don't want you' I go home. And be a farmer. I'm a farmer, I don't depend... I don't depend on anybody, I depend on myself," Jammeh said.
    Ordinary people live in poverty. A sack of rice costs about $30 in a country where average income is $1 a day.
    Regional body ECOWAS, in an unusually strong criticism of a member state, said on Tuesday it would not send a mission to observe the poll "because the preparations and political environment ... are adjudged by the commission not to be conducive for the conduct of free, fair and transparent polls."
    Its fact-finding mission found "an unacceptable level of control of the electronic media by the party in power ... and an opposition and electorate cowed by repression and intimidation".
    The head of Gambia's electoral body, Alhagie Mustapha Carayol, rejected the ECOWAS conclusions. An African Union delegation will be present to observe voting.
    Gambia's election follows other recent polls in West Africa, a region that has struggled with democracy, including elections in Ivory Coast which led to a brief civil war, and smoother ones in Guinea, Liberia and Niger.
    One of Africa's most colourful rulers, Jammeh announced in 2007 that he had a herbal concoction that cured AIDS, a claim derided by international health experts.
    While United States sees the Gambian government as an ally against militants and drugs trafficking, human rights groups have repeatedly accused Jammeh of stifling dissent and press freedom.
    He declared in July that neither a vote nor a coup could oust him, saying he ruled thanks to divine intervention. He has courted controversy with reported threats to human rights groups and a 2008 order for all homosexuals to leave Gambia.
    Neighbouring Senegal and Guinea have both in the past accused him of trying to de-stabilise them, while Gambia's ties with Taiwan mean it is one of a handful of African states which do not currently have diplomatic relations with China.
    Jammeh, who has won all three elections since the coup, is running against Hamat Bah, 51, representing a four-party alliance, and Canadian-trained attorney Ousainou Darboe, 63.
    Gambia is a sliver of land along the Gambia River between northern and southern Senegal. It retains an archaic method of voting devised by colonialists.
    Voters are given one marble each, which they drop into a drum corresponding to the candidate of their choice. The marble strikes a bell inside the drum, preventing multiple voting.
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