Opposition in Gambia vows to rally without permit

The Opposition in the West African State of Gambia is taking what many observers call a hard-line stance, defying government repeated actions to prevent it from rallying. The head of the main opposition party in the country, human rights lawyer, Ousainou Darboe, on Tuesday, told reporters at a press briefing that they would no longer be prevented from holding rallies by unavailability of permit. He said they had on many occasions demanded permit, but on no occasion was the openly biased police head, the Inspector General of Police of the country, reasonable enough to grant them permission.

This announcement by Lawyer Darboe came just a day after his party’s campaign manager, Mr Femi Peters, was arrested and charged for ‘unlawful assembly’, after the party held a rally, in defiance of police order not to do so. Mr Peters was on Monday released on bail.

Meanwhile, his party has vowed that they will challenge the constitutionality of the Public Order Act, under which he had been charged, arguing that the constitution guarantees the right to hold rallies and meetings by political parties.

The Gambia’s opposition is seen as one of the weakest in the sub region, a situation caused mainly by heavy handedness on the part of an increasingly intolerant government headed by former military captain cum president, Yahy Jammeh. Many now are eager to see if this line of action by the opposition in one of Africa’s most authoritarian run nation will make any impact.