Senegalese local elections: some lessons for Gambians

By D. A. Jawo, Banjul The Gambia

The Senegalese ruling party; the Democratic Party of Senegal (PDS) and its partners in Coalition Sopi 2009 have been caught with their pants down during the just-ended local government elections in which they lost heavily to the opposition. It really came as a big shock to Coalition Sopi when they lost virtually all the major towns including Dakar the capital, Kaolack, St. Louis, Fatick, Louga, Podor, and of course Thies, even though the winner of that place, Idrissa Seck had already indicated his intention to return to the PDS which he left to form his Rewmi party after he was sacked as Prime Minister.

While everyone expected the opposition to do well in the polls, no one, not even the opposition leadership themselves in their wildest dreams ever expected that they would achieve such an impressive victory. Indeed, the crushing defeat came as a rude shock to the ruling party as they had never anticipated it. Therefore, like one opposition militant said, the Coalition Sopi got ‘Jafurr’ (hallucinatory) and they began blaming each other for the defeat.
Political analysts however attribute the crushing defeat of the Coalition Sopi to several factors, which include the negative impact of the global economic crunch and other socio-political factors. One of those factors is no doubt the fact that the leadership of the ruling party have gotten so intoxicated with power that they have become arrogant and as a result, lost touch with the feelings of the ordinary Senegalese. Therefore, the analysts say, the party was paying for the arrogance of its leadership and officials.
One would wonder whether the situation in Senegal has any lessons for Gambians. The answer is of course in the positive. Just like Senegal, the economic situation of Gambians is just as bad, if not worse. It is also quite obvious that a majority of members of the Gambian regime are just as intoxicated with power, and therefore they have become so arrogant and far detached from the feelings of ordinary Gambians, just like their Senegalese counterparts.
However, that is about all the similarities between the Gambian and Senegalese situations. While Senegal is a full democracy with a vibrant press and a politically conscious population endowed with the freedom to speak their minds on any issue, the situation in The Gambia on the other hand is quite different altogether. The Gambian media is so muzzled that the private radio stations have almost totally abdicated their roles to engage in any political debate, while most of the private print media have been engaged in self-censorship. Therefore, the media’s traditional role of educating and sensitizing the masses has been quite compromised.

The public media on the other hand has been so tightly controlled and manipulated by the ruling party that it has completely been transformed into a mere appendix of the APRC. The people have also been so intimidated that they no longer have the courage to speak their minds on a lot of things, especially when there is widespread arbitrary arrest and indefinite detention of people in complete contravention of the existing legal provisions.

Therefore, the Gambian opposition is left with virtually a very limited avenue through which it can put across its programmes and policies to the people. It is also a fact that there is very little space allowed for the opposition to operate, particularly when the entire state machinery, including the civil service and the security forces have all been so politicized that there is now hardly any distinction between the state apparatus and the ruling party. As a result, even the customary separation of powers between the executive, the legislature and the judiciary, that everyone takes for granted in any democracy, is virtually dead in this country. Instead, what we have today is a virtual monopoly of power by the executive through the president, who calls the shots in all sectors of the state. Nowadays, hardly any head of a public sector institution takes his or her own initiative to do anything without first obtaining clearance from State House.

Another pertinent factor in the Gambian situation is no doubt the fragmentation of the opposition, which is no doubt partly responsible for the growing political apathy in the country. We saw, for instance, in the last presidential and National Assembly elections when just about 40 per cent of registered voters actually turned out to cast their votes. This is apparently because a vast majority of the people of this country has lost confidence in the political system, and it is very likely that such a trend will continue unless there is a drastic change in the way the political system operates in the country.

It is however hard to see any impending positive changes to the situation, especially when we continue to witness strange happenings, with the country degenerating to the level of exorcism and “screening of witches” as official government policy, resulting in the kidnapping of innocent people in their villages, accusing them of practicing witchcraft and forcing them to drink hallucinatory concoctions. It indeed makes all Gambians; both home and abroad, sever with shame and embarrassment to hear such strange happenings in our dear country.