(JollofNews) – Yahya Jammeh annulled the result of the December 1st election which was won by Adama Barrow, asking the supreme court which have not been sitting for more than a year to address his petition.
Would there be any impartiality in the decision of a supreme court constituted only to address the petition of a defeated dictator who invented his own results and now asking them to declare him winner?
It would be recalled that during his public statement on GRTS calling for fresh elections on December 9th , Yahya Jammeh made a startling announcement of his own results which gave Adama Barrow 227, 708 votes, Mamma Kandeh 89, 768 and made himself the winner with 280, 486 votes. It is this result that he is now asking the court to validate.
Given that two of the three candidates who contested the election accepted the certified results by the IEC, and given the petition filed by APRC is to challenge the December 1st results, we would not be surprised if Jammeh’s appointed judges do not conform to the Rules of Procedure and validate the results for him.
This newly instituted supreme court will be sitting with one objective in mind- to legitimize the manufactured election results which put himself in the lead With 31.5% , Adama Barrow 25.6% And Mamma Kandeh 9.9%.
A close comparison of the certified results by the IEC Chairman against the manufactured figures by Jammeh revealed some interesting narratives:-
Yahya Jammeh’s Results IEC Results Difference
Adama Barrow 227, 708 (25.59%) 222, 708 (43.34% ) 5, 000
Yaya Jammeh 280, 486 (31.53%) 208, 487 (39.6%) 71, 999
Mama Kandeh 87, 768 (9.87%) 89, 768 (17.1%) 2, 000
Total Votes Cast 595, 962 (100%) 520, 963 (100%) 78, 999
Registered Votes 886, 578 886, 578
Voter Turnout 67.22% 58.76%
The differences in these results would not even be compared with the guesstimate of a 12-year old sitting in an examination with multiple choice question paper. The analysis showed Jammeh just deducted 5, 000 votes from Adama Barrow’s certified result of 227, 708 to arrive at his own figure of 222, 708.
Likewise, 2, 000 votes was subtracted from Kandeh’s official result to give him a total vote of 87, 768 based on Jammeh’s result. While giving himself a whopping 280, 486 votes, an increase of 78, 999 votes .
A careful look at Jammeh’s big winning margin of 71, 999 revealed that by switching 208, 000 into 280, 000 you get 72, 000 Now just add 1 at the end to make it look genuine and you get a difference of 71,999 instead of 72,000.
In order to tie up the numbers with the marbles (ballots) in the sealed boxes stored at the IEC offices, what better way to do it than to deploy armed security officers to take over the IEC headquarters and switch the boxes with replicas of those already counted and sealed. This way any re-count to be done in court will matched his invented results.
As I am writing this piece, GRTS has just announced the withdrawal of the armed security officers and ordered the IEC staff to return to work. How inventive? The switching of the boxes have perfectly been carried out and the unsuspecting IEC staff would then be subpoenaed in court to present the sealed boxes for re-counting in court. Great Job Mr. Jammeh. It will be prudent if the IEC Chairman and his staff avoid going in there until after the inauguration of Adama Barrow.
The unprecedented amount of prognostication about the dictator’s intention by forcefully removing the IEC staff from the building was centered on the questionable nature of the timing of such a move. The forceful occupation of the premises coincided with the filing of the APRC Petition at the offices of the Chief Justice and interestingly, this was done at the same time when the visiting of the four Heads of State from ECOWAS was supposed to start. It raises some serious red flag.
Was this a demonstration of gleeful defiance or a display of arrogance from a president who wants to subvert the will of the people and impose himself as winner of the election by hook or crook? Well! We have to see how the defeated dictator will direct his hand-picked appointed judges to give him victory.
Investigations into APRC’s Petition could not be complete without going to the bottom of the results. Whether the Supreme Court will operate as a ‘Reviewing’ Court or a Trial Court, will depend whether all the votes cast can be verified against the voters registers maintained for all the constituencies throughout the country.
That exercise will not be easy to accomplish especially when Gambians voted with marbles instead of paper ballots (with clearly marked ballots signed or thumb-printed), which will make It impossible to conduct a complete and comprehensive post-election vote recount that can dispel or rebut any allegations of electoral fraud.
Whatever the outcome is going to be, APRC stalwarts and supporters have already started preparing for victory celebrations and are right now distributing ashobis and T-shirts for the celebrations slated for 15th January, 3 days before the end of his legal mandate. Do they know something that the ordinary Gambians did not know who voted massively for change? The Supreme Court Will Sit to Legitimize Yahya Jammeh’s Manufactured Results Only If the Marbles can speak in a vote re-count?
In re-echoing his exact words to president-elect, Adama Barrow, Jammeh said, “Allah is telling me my time is up and I hand over graciously with gratitude toward the Gambian people and gratitude toward you.” That Allah is still watching and we only hope that the defeated Jammeh will respect the choice of the Gambian people and listen to the local and international voices asking him to peacefully handover power for the sake of national unity and peace.
Please Mr. Jammeh don’t play into the horrible legacies of Khadafy, Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin and Mobuto. Try and emulate the excellent record of our God-fearing father of this nation who is still around watching the political evolution which is about to change the lives of the people. If anybody should complaint about the illegality of removing him from office, it should be none other than Alhagie Sir Dawda Jawara. As the old aphorism have it, “history repeats itself.”
by MBO Gaye
Very good to remind the IEC staff about the possibility that the sealed boxes and the computers could be tampered. Good point .
Only fool will listen to jammeh. People are not stupid as he thought, sending army in IEC building and deny it staff and their boss sound like crook is ready to cook. Jammeh this is clearly indication that your time is over, you are still forcing yourself to legitimize for something you really knows you dont earn it. This is sad for jammeh.
Have you read the Gambia constitution part 3 number 3
If no candidate has more 50% of votes casted there should be a rerun of elections, so before you defend any results please go back and read the constitution
Gambian is not about 50% vote. Answer is simple majority and jammeh was winning election for the past 20 years most of the time he never pulled 50% and decleared a winner, why this time has to be different from the previouse election.