The 53 seats of the National Assembly are now filled on party lines. Analysis of the results reveals a fragmented electorate. The national unity that the coalition aimed to build is now put into question as conflict and arrest take the upper hand in Foni and elsewhere.
Let us take the results of the Serrekunda West Constituency for analytical purposes. The UDP polled 4367 votes, the APRC 4189 votes, the PDOIS 3671 votes. The 4367 votes of the winner could not be compared to the combined votes of the other contestants amounting to 10,297 votes
At the moment the UDP has 31 seats and the other seats are occupied as follows: NRP 5, APRC 5, GDC 5, PDOIS 4, PPP 2 and Independent 1.
Of course no single party has three quarters of the seats to be able to amend the constitution unlike the national assembly which is just ousted. In the sane vein no single party has two thirds majority to be able to impeach the president.
In short, the results of the elections have not provided any relevance in legislative terms that could promote the agenda of any single party in the national assembly. What it simply shows is that some parties have more seats than others.
The results also have not shown that any party could have a grip of the presidency after the transition.
Voter apathy as predicted is evident. In short, the spirit of building a coalition on a nonpartisan foundation is lost. Maximum effort would have to be made again to put the pieces together again so that those who truly believe in the spirit of building a foundation for the slogan “one Gambia, one nation, one people” will be able to pursue their goal. All is not lost if we entertain national dialogue to promote good governance, respect for fundamental rights, prosperity and justice for all.
