By Buba Gagigo
The Secretary-General and Party leader of the Gambia Democratic Congress (GDC), Hon. Mama Kandeh has warned the Independent Electoral Commission not to set the Gambia on fire.
“We complain about the last registration process even before the closure of the registration. It was not done through a normal process and it was not truthful. I gave Nema Kunku as an example. For ten good years, there was no registration. If Nema Kunku had three hundred and this time you register two hundred. Where are the others, it’s like nothing has been destroyed in Nema Kunku. Telling us people have migrated. Migrated to where? That difference was given to the Senegalese to come and vote in the Gambia. Then if this country is set on fire, is you,” Kandeh said.
The GDC leader also claimed that in 2016, it was the Independent Electoral Commission that wanted to set the country on fire after their second results announcement;
“I will tell IEC, I will appeal to them not to burn this country down. Don’t set the country on fire. It was only IEC who wanted to burn this country In 2016, not Yahya Jammeh, not Mama Kandeh, and not Adama Barrow. You announced a result today, and two days later you said a different thing. Just take an example of yourself, how will you feel if it was you? If the country burns, it’s IEC. They should be careful and understand that people trust in them and that they should not align with any political party. But that is what is happening,” he said on Saturday in Jarra Soma.
In the 2021 presidential election, the GDC leader accused IEC of conspiring with the president and Supreme Court to throw away the UDP’S elections petition;
“That’s why UDP wrote a petition with evidence of elections fraud but the IEC and the presidency insisted that did not happen and with the support of the supreme court, they strike the case out of court on technicalities. And the excuse was that the president was not notified. But his lawyers were at the court saying the president should have not been summoned. If the president is not aware how did his lawyers know?
“Does that makes sense? If we talk, they say, the politicians want to burn down the country. The truth is it is not us. We are peace-loving people. Because of all these that happened, Gambians and the politicians are mute about it. It went up to a point where someone release an audio explaining how people were registered at President Barrow’s MAJUM premises in Jeswang. Should they use the IEC machines to register people there? Should IEC allow that?” he asked.
Just like the United Democratic Party stated in their elections petition filed with the Supreme Court, the GDC leader also insisted that people were registered even after the closure of voter registration in the Gambia;
“The other point is when they said registration is closed, after the closure, they continue to register people. If the country is burned, it’s you. That will never happen here again. We will never accept it again and whatever happened, you are the cause. The president wrote a petition against me to IEC.
“He said former president Yahya Jammeh should not talk during my meetings. IEC has the guts to write to me to stop him or they will suspend my campaign. But IEC has not replied to the petition that I wrote to them with evidence and they have not given it to Adama Barrow. Let’s be truthful. Today he is there and tomorrow another person will be in his position. There’s nothing permanent in life. But we are not going to allow you to set this country on fire,” Kandeh said.
Hon. Mama Kandeh was speaking at his Party’s National Congress in Jarra Soma last Saturday.