The Gambia
The Gambia closer to one-party rule system

afrol News, 18 January - After an opposition boycott of yesterday's legislative elections, the ruling Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) is expected to have won almost all parliamentary seats. President Yayah Jammeh seems closer to his outspoken wish of a one-party system.

After President Jammeh won last October's presidential elections, through intimidation and fraud according to the opposition (although not sustained by independent election observers), the political landscape of The Gambia has become ever more monolithic.

Almost one month ago, the main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) decided to boycott the polls, alleging massive government fraud. UDP leader Ousainou Darboe, announcing the boycott, said the polls were "seriously flawed". 

Darboe said the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) was allowing Gambians to vote in any area of choice in "an attempt by the IEC to aid the massive transfer of ruling party supporters to what are historically opposition strongholds". The IEC, in a statement, however dismissed Darboe's claims as "unfounded and lacking sincerity and goodwill". 

President Jammeh's APRC ran unopposed in 33 out of 48 Gambian constituencies. In the other 15, it faced the National Reconciliation Party (NRP) and the People's Democratic Organisation for Independence and Socialism (PDOIS). According to preliminary results, Jammeh's APRC has won 45 seats in parliament, while NRP and PDOIS share three seats. President Jammeh has the power to choose five more deputies himself.

The results also show that voter's turnout was significantly much lower than in the presidential elections, thus indicating that a great part of the Gambians stood behind the boycott of Darboe's UDP. 

President Jammeh had an easy match during the electoral campaign, claiming the "UDP collapsed". As the UDP was the only serious threat to his party, he encouraged every Gambian to "come together under the APRC umbrella to work for the development of this country." Jammeh has earlier made statements he is in favour of a one-party system in The Gambia. 

Yayah Jammeh (36) came to power in a military coup in 1994. He since brought The Gambia back on a trail towards democracy. The last two years of his rule have however been marked by a steadily deteriorating human rights situation.

Opposition leader Darboe, who obtained 32 percent of the vote in the presidential elections, however has promised he and his party would not give up the fight to "revitalise our democracy in this country." 

- The National Assembly is not the only forum where political parties can make their views known and felt, Darboe said in a statement last week. 

Sources: UDP, IRIN, BBC, The Independent and afrol archives

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