{"id":27784,"date":"2023-01-14T08:56:08","date_gmt":"2023-01-14T08:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/gdc-says-opposition-should-consider-boycotting-april-elections"},"modified":"2023-01-14T11:32:09","modified_gmt":"2023-01-14T11:32:09","slug":"gdc-says-opposition-should-consider-boycotting-april-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gdc-says-opposition-should-consider-boycotting-april-elections","title":{"rendered":"GDC SAYS OPPOSITION SHOULD CONSIDER BOYCOTTING APRIL ELECTIONS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. <\/strong><\/span><b>The Gambia Democratic Congress, GDC, has said it will be absurd, useless and extremely oxymoronic for the opposition political parties to even think of participating in an election that is predetermined by deliberate electoral malpractice machinery.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The party further described as \u201cunacceptable and dangerous\u201d government\u2019s inaction over allegations that Senegalese nationals easily access Gambian ID Cards.<\/p>\n<p>Last December, Senegalese parliamentarian, Oumar Cisse\u0301 Souvane\u0301, alleged that the majority of people in his community in Casamance have Gambian identity cards because it is very easy to get.<\/p>\n<p>His comment has since drawn widespread reactions from Gambians from all walks of life including politicians who demand for government immediate action. But since the MP made the claims, the government has not commented on the matter.<\/p>\n<p>Concerned about the government\u2019s inaction, the GDC spokesperson Abdoulie Jallow said the government\u2019s silence over the matter could only demonstrate their complicity and guilt in the alleged registration of Senegalese nationals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe GDC views with utter disgust and suspicion, the lackadaisical manner in which our government is handling the serious allegation levelled by a Senegalese Member of Parliament (MP) regarding the use of Gambian ID and voter cards by Senegalese nationals living in the Casamance region during our elections. We have followed the matter with extreme patience waiting for an official statement and call for a participatory investigation into the issue; involving representatives of all political parties and the government but all we have seen is government\u2019s passivity and mute indifference over the matter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>This, Jallow added, is very dangerous and could compromise the country\u2019s electoral process especially the local government election because the opposition whose doubts were justified by the Senegalese MP could be tempted to reject the outcome of the results.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA serious government would have no doubt expressed concerns about the claims of the Senegalese MP because it poses serious national security threats. So, the government\u2019s attitude tantamount to a complicity in the midst of the prevalence of this manner of bizarre national embarrassment. What does this portray? One is forced to believe that there is a hanging need to use these Senegalese\u2019 voters\u2019 cards during the forthcoming Local Government election by a particular political party to ensure its victory as it happens in the presidential election,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Jallow added that if the government \u201cis not a beneficiary of the possession of Gambian ID and voter cards by foreigners living in the nooks and crannies of the Casamance region of Senegal, one would expect them to act swiftly to investigate the allegations, as it is an issue of very grave national concern, that carries severe consequence on our national security as well as on the credibility of our elections.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The former National Assembly member said the IEC cannot assure credible elections with the current voter register.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, what is the role of the IEC in the design, formulation and implementation of this electoral fraud or crime? Why is the IEC not concerned with the proliferation of Gambian voters\u2019 cards in a neighboring country? Why are we in this state of national mess? Why is the IEC sounding deaf over the issue? Why is the government treating such a serious issue that affects our national security and credibility of our elections with a clear manner of passivity and docility? Does this not imply taking Gambians for granted?\u201d Jallow asked.<\/p>\n<p><b>Wayforward<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Jallow said the government should initiate a joint investigation comprising members of the opposition political parties and representatives of the government to establish the veracity of the serious allegations, and if proven as true, find ways of remedying it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs of now, we all are forced to believe that the allegations are true \u2013 that hundreds of thousands of Gambian voters\u2019 cards and ID cards are in the hands of foreigners surrounding us, and are waiting and prepared to vote in the forthcoming Local Government elections. With this sad scenario, our national sovereignty, security and credibility of our elections has been undermined and gravely abused. We therefore demand that the government take the matter very seriously,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>He said the government should understand that it is criminal for any Gambian to aid and abate foreigners to interfere in our electoral process.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is also vital for the government to understand that interference by foreign entities in other nation\u2019s domestic elections have shaken and in fact wrecked many democracies around the world,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\">Gambia<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. The Gambia Democratic Congress, GDC, has said it will be absurd, useless and extremely oxymoronic for the opposition political parties to even think of participating in an election that is predetermined by deliberate electoral malpractice machinery. The party further described as \u201cunacceptable and dangerous\u201d government\u2019s inaction over allegations that Senegalese nationals easily [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":27783,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,12],"tags":[2355,2361,260],"class_list":["post-27784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-gambia","tag-gambia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>GDC SAYS OPPOSITION SHOULD CONSIDER BOYCOTTING APRIL ELECTIONS - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Gambia Democratic Congress, GDC, has said it will be absurd, useless and extremely oxymoronic for the opposition ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gdc-says-opposition-should-consider-boycotting-april-elections\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"GDC SAYS OPPOSITION SHOULD CONSIDER BOYCOTTING APRIL ELECTIONS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Gambia Democratic Congress, GDC, has said it will be absurd, useless and extremely oxymoronic for the opposition ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gdc-says-opposition-should-consider-boycotting-april-elections\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-01-14T08:56:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-01-14T11:32:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2023\/01\/postQueueImg_1673674013.80.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gdc-says-opposition-should-consider-boycotting-april-elections#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gdc-says-opposition-should-consider-boycotting-april-elections\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"GDC SAYS OPPOSITION SHOULD CONSIDER BOYCOTTING APRIL ELECTIONS\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-01-14T08:56:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-01-14T11:32:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gdc-says-opposition-should-consider-boycotting-april-elections\"},\"wordCount\":757,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gdc-says-opposition-should-consider-boycotting-april-elections#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2023\/01\/postQueueImg_1673674013.80.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Gambia\",\"Gambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gdc-says-opposition-should-consider-boycotting-april-elections#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gdc-says-opposition-should-consider-boycotting-april-elections\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gdc-says-opposition-should-consider-boycotting-april-elections\",\"name\":\"GDC SAYS OPPOSITION SHOULD CONSIDER BOYCOTTING APRIL ELECTIONS - Gambia\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gdc-says-opposition-should-consider-boycotting-april-elections#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gdc-says-opposition-should-consider-boycotting-april-elections#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2023\/01\/postQueueImg_1673674013.80.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-01-14T08:56:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-01-14T11:32:09+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"The Gambia Democratic Congress, GDC, has said it will be absurd, useless and extremely oxymoronic for the opposition ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gdc-says-opposition-should-consider-boycotting-april-elections#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gdc-says-opposition-should-consider-boycotting-april-elections\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gdc-says-opposition-should-consider-boycotting-april-elections#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2023\/01\/postQueueImg_1673674013.80.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2023\/01\/postQueueImg_1673674013.80.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":720,\"caption\":\"GDC SAYS OPPOSITION SHOULD CONSIDER BOYCOTTING APRIL ELECTIONS\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gdc-says-opposition-should-consider-boycotting-april-elections#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"GDC SAYS OPPOSITION SHOULD CONSIDER BOYCOTTING APRIL ELECTIONS\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/\",\"name\":\"Gambia\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"GDC SAYS OPPOSITION SHOULD CONSIDER BOYCOTTING APRIL ELECTIONS - Gambia","description":"The Gambia Democratic Congress, GDC, has said it will be absurd, useless and extremely oxymoronic for the opposition ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gdc-says-opposition-should-consider-boycotting-april-elections","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"GDC SAYS OPPOSITION SHOULD CONSIDER BOYCOTTING APRIL ELECTIONS","og_description":"The Gambia Democratic Congress, GDC, has said it will be absurd, useless and extremely oxymoronic for the opposition ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gdc-says-opposition-should-consider-boycotting-april-elections","og_site_name":"Gambia","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2023-01-14T08:56:08+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-01-14T11:32:09+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2023\/01\/postQueueImg_1673674013.80.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gdc-says-opposition-should-consider-boycotting-april-elections#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gdc-says-opposition-should-consider-boycotting-april-elections"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"GDC SAYS OPPOSITION SHOULD CONSIDER BOYCOTTING APRIL ELECTIONS","datePublished":"2023-01-14T08:56:08+00:00","dateModified":"2023-01-14T11:32:09+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gdc-says-opposition-should-consider-boycotting-april-elections"},"wordCount":757,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gdc-says-opposition-should-consider-boycotting-april-elections#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2023\/01\/postQueueImg_1673674013.80.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Gambia","Gambia"],"articleSection":["all news","head lines","policy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gdc-says-opposition-should-consider-boycotting-april-elections#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gdc-says-opposition-should-consider-boycotting-april-elections","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gdc-says-opposition-should-consider-boycotting-april-elections","name":"GDC SAYS OPPOSITION SHOULD CONSIDER BOYCOTTING APRIL ELECTIONS - Gambia","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gdc-says-opposition-should-consider-boycotting-april-elections#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gdc-says-opposition-should-consider-boycotting-april-elections#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2023\/01\/postQueueImg_1673674013.80.jpg","datePublished":"2023-01-14T08:56:08+00:00","dateModified":"2023-01-14T11:32:09+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"The Gambia Democratic Congress, GDC, has said it will be absurd, useless and extremely oxymoronic for the opposition ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gdc-says-opposition-should-consider-boycotting-april-elections#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gdc-says-opposition-should-consider-boycotting-april-elections"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gdc-says-opposition-should-consider-boycotting-april-elections#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2023\/01\/postQueueImg_1673674013.80.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2023\/01\/postQueueImg_1673674013.80.jpg","width":1280,"height":720,"caption":"GDC SAYS OPPOSITION SHOULD CONSIDER BOYCOTTING APRIL ELECTIONS"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gdc-says-opposition-should-consider-boycotting-april-elections#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"GDC SAYS OPPOSITION SHOULD CONSIDER BOYCOTTING APRIL ELECTIONS"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/","name":"Gambia","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}