BANJUL, Gambia (AP) — Gambians are set to vote Saturday in a historic election, one which for the primary time is not going to have former dictator Yahya Jammeh showing on the poll.
Whereas the 2016 elections that eliminated Jammeh from energy after 22 years noticed Gambians go from worry to elation, many are nonetheless not glad with the progress the nation has made and wish certainty that the brand new leaders will convey the tiny West African nation of about 2 million, depending on tourism, towards peace and justice.
Regardless of his departure from Gambia in 2017, Jammeh’s grip on the elections stays as candidates vow to proceed to struggle for justice — the nation continues to endure from the consequences of Jammeh’s rule, nonetheless awaiting justice for rights abuses dedicated throughout that point and funds taken from state coffers.
“As a rustic, we can not heal with out justice. We can not have reconciliation with out justice,” Gambia Bar Affiliation lawyer Salieu Taal informed The Related Press.
As much as six candidates are vying for the nation’s prime put up, together with the incumbent Adama Barrow, who ran in 2016 because the candidate for an opposition coalition.
He faces former mentor and head opposition chief Ousainou Darboe of the United Democratic Celebration; Mama Kandeh of Gambia Democratic Congress; Halifa Sallah of Individuals’s Democratic Group for Independence and Socialism; Abdoulie Ebrima Jammeh of the Nationwide Unity Celebration; and Essa Mbye Faal, former lead counsel of the reality fee, who’s working underneath an unbiased ticket.
They’ve all vowed to run underneath an agenda for change as Gambians search justice, but in addition a stronger economic system within the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic that continues to see giant numbers trying the lethal migration path to Europe.
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Final week, the Reality, Reconciliation and Reparations fee handed its 17-volume report back to President Barrow, urging him to ship on expectations in making certain that perpetrators of human rights violations are prosecuted.
Jammeh’s two-decade regime was marked by arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances and abstract executions that have been revealed by dramatic testimony throughout the fee hearings that lasted for years.
Barrow, calling the fee one of many highlights of his presidential profession, has promised prosecutions and justice for victims.
“I guarantee them (victims’ households) that my authorities will be certain that is justice is completed, however I urge them to be affected person and permit the authorized course of to take its course,” he informed reality fee members upon receiving their closing report.
Nonetheless, a Barrow re-election is unsure as many Gambians really feel betrayal after his Nationwide Individuals’s Celebration reached a cope with the highest figures of the previous ruling social gathering.
Ndey Sambou, a dealer at Brikama market, informed AP that the president ought to clear the air over the content material of the memorandum of understanding signed between his social gathering and the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Building (APRC) — which finally cut up with Jammeh.
Sainey Senghore who survived gunshot wounds throughout the April 2000 college students bloodbath, made it clear that victims’ expectations shall be forefront as they head to the polls Saturday.
“This authorities got here to position with a number of guarantees. On the finish, they’re sidelining the victims, working according to the perpetrators,” he mentioned, calling Barrow’s rapprochement with APRC “very disheartening, and really disappointing.”
Related sentiments have been echoed by Abdoulie H. Bojang whose son was killed throughout the full-scale crackdown on peaceable college students demanding justice for a rape sufferer.
“We want justice to have the ability to have closure on this ongoing tragedy,” he mentioned.
The hyperlinks to Jammeh aren’t solely a problem for the present president, nevertheless. Opposition candidate Kandeh has been supported strongly by a breakaway political faction that Jammeh shaped throughout his persevering with exile in Equatorial Guinea.
Whereas Kandeh continues to watch a convincing silence over Jammeh’s potential return, his allies are unequivocally saying that Jammeh will come again dwelling in the event that they emerge victorious within the coming elections.
Jammeh, who seized energy in 1994 in a cold coup, was voted out of workplace in 2016 after opposition events created a coalition and Gambians voted Barrow in, a present of intolerance with the abuses of the previous.
After initially agreeing to step down, Jammeh resisted, and a six-week disaster noticed neighboring West African international locations put together to ship in troops to stage a army intervention. Jammeh was pressured into exile and fled to Equatorial Guinea aboard a aircraft along with his household and lots of belongings.
Of the opposite candidates, Sallah and Darboe are established politicians, however they face challenges from newcomers similar to Faal and Ebrima Jammeh, who’re making waves in city areas.
Gambians, used to violence surrounding polls, fear a few potential confrontation between Barrow and Darboe supporters, because the years have seen an amazing divide between the 2 leaders who have been as soon as shut.
“Gambia is simply too small. Election time militants shouldn’t permit politicians to tug them into violence,” Momodou Jobe, a resident of Serrekunda, informed the AP.
Pierre Gomez, a professor and Vice Chancellor on the College of The Gambia, mentioned political affiliations should now not divide Gambians.
“We should always tolerate, accommodate and embrace each other no matter our divergence in views; the truth is, in our divergence, lies our power,” he mentioned earlier within the week in a gap handle throughout a city corridor assembly on the college. “Elections come and go, leaders come and go, however The Gambia will at all times stay.”
