The race for the much-talked about National Assembly by-election in Nianjia constituency has and continued to gain momentum barely a month to the elections as the ruling APRC party has named its candidate for the race. This comes few weeks after the opposition NRP through its Campaign Manager, Dullo Bah also revealed that they will be taking part in the by-elections.

A native of Sareh Alpha in Nianija constituency, Yaya Whan, the APRC candidate in the forthcoming elections is reported to have been selected after thorough vetting of a total number of 13 APRC aspirants who had shown their interest in the candidacy.

The elections, slated for Thursday 18thDecember 2008, follow the expulsion of Mr. Dawda Manneh, the erstwhile National Assembly Member for the said constituency from the ruling APRC party on whose ticket he was elected to the National Assembly.

His expulsion, readers will recall, comes in the wake of his arrest on Saturday 13thSeptember 2008 together with one Demba Baldeh, an ex-soldier working as a Security Guard at the Central Bank for allegedly trying to smuggle a large quantity of cannabis sativa, locally called “jamba”.

Latest reports from the Central River Region have it that a good number of some APRC bigwigs are currently in the Nianija constituency, a supposed APRC stronghold drumming up more support for the ruling party.

While some media reports are predicting an early APRC victory, political analysts still believe that with both opposing sides apparently brimming with confidence to secure the Nianja National Assembly seat, any prediction as to the potential winner will have to reckoned with the tendency of sudden changes in political fortunes.

In a separate but related development, Mr. Femi Peters, Campaign Manager of the main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP), has said that he is not in a position to say as to whether his party will contest in the forthcoming by-elections in Nianija. He was however quick to add that if this is not the case, his party will give its fullest support to the opposition NRP party who is in coalition with his party.

“We are going to give the NRP 200% support in the upcoming by-elections,” he said.