By Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT
Only two years ago, less than 4% of Kerr Jarga Ward voters cast their votes for the only female candidate from Gambia Moral Congress (GMC) Satang Keita. In a complete reversal over 74% of Kerr Jarga Ward voters cast their vote for Awa Gaye of the National People’s Party (NPP) and Yama Cham of the Gambia Democratic Congress (GDC). This article features two interviews with Councillor Awa Gaye and Yama Cham on the role of women in Gambian Politics, if they have accepted the results, their plans for Kerr Jarga Ward and their willingness to work together to develop their community.
Have Both Candidates Accepted the Results?
One week after coming second in the By-Elections, GDC’s Yama Cham was still not pleased with the results although she hadn’t challenged them in court. Speaking in the local Gambian language Wollof she said that “in any way that you look at it, the results were not fair”. The teacher who took one month leave to pursue her political campaign was still graceful after coming second saying that “in the end, if you’re not successful you must remain faithful and know that only the Almighty God gives”.
Speaking to NPP’s new Councillor Awa Gaye she highlighted that she was “very pleased with the win” and that “the main reason why” she contested was to increase her “work with the women groups”. According to the newly formed National People’s Party only Councillor, she was previously “working with the Gambia Democratic Congress” and has been “working as the VDC (Village Development Committee) Vice-Chairperson”. She is currently “the Secretary-General of the main compins (Women Groups) in” her community and “also the cashier for three smaller compins” in her community.
More Women in Big Politics, Our Rightful Position
“More women should be involved in political elections to make sure women are in positions of authority,” said Councillor Gaye. In her view “politics is nothing to be afraid of. Politics is not a bad thing. Politics is not haram. Am inviting more women to come and join Politics so we can have more of a voice. Our strength can be enhanced and our problems can be addressed. If we are into Big Politics where we are in our rightful position then our voice will be heard. I am telling all the women and youth to come and join Politics so we can progress.”
GDC’s Yama Cham had a similar message to women, who she urges “not be afraid to venture into politics. Wherever we find ourselves as people we are striving for development then we need to knock on all the doors to make that happen. You can’t just focus on one and ignore the rest. That wouldn’t take you very far. My message to the women is for them to participate in politics and to contest in politics.”
Perhaps the increase in the number of women candidates convinced more voters to cast their marbles in the By-Elections. It’s worth noting that over 200 more voters cast their marble tokens in the By-Elections compared to the 2018 Councillor Elections when only 44% (2,504) of voters cast their votes. Meaning that the overall voter turnout in the By-Elections was 48% (2,767), which is almost half of the total number of registered voters in Kerr Jarga Ward.
Community Development Promises
We asked both Councillor Gaye and Yama Cham about their plans to develop Kerr Jarga Ward and only received a detailed response from Councillor Gaye. Yama Cham, on the other hand, explained that she would be implementing the GDC Manifesto to develop Kerr Jarga Ward.
Councillor Gaye’s plan can be summarised in two main points. Her first plan is for women and youth to join the Village Development Committee’s (VDC) because “it’s at the VDC’s where we sit down and discuss the issues affecting the community that I can relay to the Council so that it can be discussed and addressed.”
Her second plan is to address “problems affecting women specifically” like maternal mortality, women in business and farming.
Why GDC and NPP?
We asked both Councillor Gaye and Yama Cham why they choose to run under their respective party tickets. We learned that Councillor Gaye was initially a member of the GDC. Ironically enough the winner of the 2018 Councillor Elections in Kerr Jarga (Alpha Khan) was also a member of the GDC and resigned from his post to join the NPP.
Councillor Gaye stressed that she “wasn’t into Politics at the beginning”. Her political career took off at the newly formed NPP because she “saw that it’s a party of peace which respects people and a party that supports women”, “that’s what made me join the party, their ambition for women and youth”.
Yama Cham says she joined the GDC party “for so many reasons” and has been a supporter since 2013. In her view “the GDC is helping the society in all aspects” and she “has not come across any other political parties doing” what GDC has done in Kerr Jarga Ward.
Some of the things she pointed at can be seen Kerr Jarga “and the Darsilami Ward you will see the big things we have done that the government has not done. GDC has built some boreholes, machines and medicines in the hospitals”.
Will You Work with Your Counterpart?
To conclude we asked Councillor Gaye if she was willing to work with the three candidates who lost and also asked Yama Cham if she was also willing to partner with Councillor Gaye to develop Kerr Jarga Ward and this is what they had to say.
Councillor Awa Gaye (NPP) – “I have the intention of working with them. After winning the elections I have been communicating with the other candidates. I also welcomed them and they all gave a speech. We all came together to work together because we were politicking and now that has finished. The people made their choice and we have all come together now to see what will develop our community. I’ve spoken to them about and I will invite them to work with me on some community programs.”
Yama Cham (GDC) – “I can work with Awa anytime because she doesn’t have any problem and I also don’t have any problem and we both don’t see it as anything big. We see it as we were both looking for the same position to develop the country but not to find a position to destroy. If one person is working and the other person is destroying that can only cause a lot of problems. But inside our hearts we have nothing against each other. We can work together just like how we were working before.”