APRC Retains Wuli East Seat

The Daily Observer (Banjul)

URR

29 April 2011

The ruling APRC retained its Wuli East Constituency seat in the National Assembly after its candidate, Saidou V. Sabally defeated his opponent, Suwaibou Touray of NADD by 2745 votes to 1849 in Thursday’s by-election.

The election, which was conducted by the Independent Electoral Commissio (IEC) was described as free, fair and transparent. The Wuli East seat became vacant following the demise of Hon. Bekai Camara. The vote counting was witnessed by cabinet ministers, National Assembly members (NAMs) the governor and deputy governor of URR, security chiefs, heads of institutions, and political party militants, among others.

The IEC commissioner responsible for the Central and Upper River Regions (CRR & URR) Alieu Moamar Njai, officially announced the results after the counting that was witnessed and endorsed by party agents in Wuli Baja Kunda. He described the election as free and fair. He also thanked the commissioner of police for URR, Ebrima Cham and his men for providing security during the election process.

For his part, Marshall Preston, an election observer from the US Embassy told journalists that he was satisfied with the election process. He described it as free and fair, and added that there was no intimidation of voters.

Commenting on the outcome of the by-election, the APRC national mobiliser, Yankuba Colley, said the victory is a positive signal ahead of the presidential election slated for November. He added that the defeat of the opposition candidate shows how well prepared the APRC is. The confident looking national mobiliser expressed optimism that come November 24th, 2011, President Jammeh will be declared winner of the presidential election. “The oppositions are no more because APRC stands for progress, development, and anything that is good,” Colley said.

He added: “The people love Saidou and this is the third [time] that he (Suwaibou) is going down and he will continue to go down. We will sink him.” He then called on his party militants to get registered for the presidential election.

For his part, the victorious Saidou V. Sabally gave thanks to the Almighty Allah for making his dream a reality. He also thanked the president for sponsoring the election, and the people of Wuli for exercising their franchise in the right way. He assured that he will represent Wuli East fully in order to bring unity, progress, and development to the area.

Recast

It would be recalled that Suwaibou Touray also lost to the late Honourable Bekai Camara in the same election in 2007. In that election the APRC got 3760 votes, while NADD got 2691. The ruling APRC has never lost any election in that constituency since the advent of the Second Republic.

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