The army cannot stop us from our march to freedom

Coalition leader's campaign  caravan 

There is panic in the Jammeh camp because the Gambian dictator is poised to lose his 5th reelection bid to the opposition Coalition candidate.   The presidential elections scheduled for Thursday the 1st December promises to provide the opposition with its best opportunity to uproot a despotic regime that has entrenched itself since its leader seize power illegally 22 years ago.

During this period, the despotic Jammeh allowed corruption and ineptitude to run rampant, resulting in a dramatic decline in the living standards of Gambians.  On the diplomatic front, the country became isolated to the point of being treated as a pariah state. We have become the laughing stock of the international community.  Thanks to Yaya Jammeh.

The Gambian people, always taken for granted by Jammeh, finally came to terms with these hard realities and demanded change by challenging the numerous opposition parties to coalesce around a single candidate.  Seven of the political parties plus an independent presidential candidate responded to the call as a result.  To add to Jammeh's political woes, his supporters, including those belonging to the single largest ethnic group that Jammeh threatened to exterminate, began abandoning him in droves to join the ranks of the Coalition.

The size of the crowds that greet Adama Barrow, the Coalition leader, at every locality across the country has shaken the confidence of the ruling party to its core, and the energy and the enthusiasm on display promise to propel the opposition to victory next week.  By contrast, the ruling APRC lacks the crowd size and enthusiasm, a possible reason why Jammeh did not attend his political rallies at Sinchu and Tanji.  The official line is that Jammeh is mourning the death of his old friend Fidel which occured today.  Jammeh's health has been on the decline for a couple of years and was seen coughing persistently throughout his campaign tour of the country.

With or without the death of Fidel Castro and fearing that people will be out in the streets on election night, our sources say Jammeh is contemplating deploying the army around strategic points as deterrent to any possible peace assembly of opposition supporters as they monitor the election returns.  " No amount of intimidation by the army is going to stop us from our march to freedom" from tyranny. "  Another highly placed Coalition official among the crowd of supporters of the opposition said in the vernacular "we have already taken over the country", referring to the 7-party Coalition.

The Gambian people will demand a free and fair elections.  Anything short of that will not be tolerated.  In serving notice to the military to stay away from suppressing the will of the people, we are also demanding that the Independent Electoral Commission, particularly its Chairman, Alieu Momar Njie.  Shenanigans from  the IEC will not be tolerated.  We have already identified several anomalies in the number of registered voters which is greater than the number of eligible population 18 years and older which the IEC will have to explain to the Gambian people.