President

United Nations Security Council

United Nations Headquarters

New York, New York

U.S.A

31^st November 2011

______________________________________________________________________

Your Excellency,

The Gambia’s Flawed and Fraudulent Presidential Elections

The Gambia has just concluded presidential elections, the results of which the opposition Alliance of United Democratic Party (UDP) and Gambia Moral Congress (GMC) has rejected and dismissed as bogus and fraudulent. The pre-elections day period was devoid of a level playing field and events leading up to the elections were neither free nor fair. The Election Day events were also rigged to the advantage of the ruling APRC party. The facts are contained in our press release of 28th November 2011 which is enclosed with this letter. The press release itself is not exhaustive.

On the eve of the polls, the sub-regional bloc, The Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) issued a statement in which they observed that President Jammeh’s control of the media and intimidation of voters meant that the election could not be free, fair and transparent, and consequently refused to send observers to monitor the polls. This is what ECOWAS stated;

‘‘A fact-finding mission had reported an unacceptable level of control of the electronic media by the party in power, and an opposition and electorate cowed by repression and intimidation."

The Commonwealth observer team, in their preliminary report, also noted a significant lack of a level playing field and stated that "the ruling party's use of the state machinery during the campaign period amounted to a serious abuse of incumbency."

The African Union also noted a strong media bias in favour of the ruling APRC – President Jammeh asserted a total control over the state media and also muzzled the private media. There was gross imbalance in the financial and material resources of candidates. This imbalance is mainly due to President Jammeh’s gross abuse of incumbency, particularly his heavy use of state resources and institutions such as the security apparatus, the civil service, local government authorities and parastatals.

The UDP/GMC United Alliance’s position is thatthe results of the November 24th 2011 Presidential Elections did not reflect the will of the Gambian people and therefore should be rejected by all democratic and civilised nations. In this respect, we urge your government/organisation through you, not to recognise the regime of Yahya Jammeh and to consider adopting appropriate diplomatic measures to compel President Jammeh to play by democratic rules as known to civilised nations and in line with international standards or face appropriate consequences.

Yours faithfully,

A.N.M. Ousainu Darboe

Presidential Candidate, UDP/GMC Alliance

Cc;

Foreign Secretary, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Secretary of State, United States of America

Foreign Minister, Republic of France

Foreign Minister, German Federation

H.E Jonathan Goodluck, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria

H.E Abdoulaye Wade, President of the Republic of Senegal

H.E John Atta Mills, President of the Republic of Ghana

Chairman, African Union Commission

President, ECOWAS Commission

EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy

Secretary General, Commonwealth

Chairperson, The Elders