One of the beauties of democracy is its allowance for the people to make informed choices of their own. And this, fortunately, is central in our own fledgling democratic dispensation. Another is that ours is a parliamentary one, where the people themselves make the decisions through their elected representatives at the National Assembly.

Democracy - for the people and by the people. If the Constitution of the Gambia is a true reflection of the will of the Gambian people, then the people’s power is supreme.

It follows that the difference  between divine and man-made laws is the weakness of imperfection of the latter over the former. This explains why our constitutions, unlike God-sent books, are subject to amendment, in order to fix spots of imperfection to suit our needs.

Therefore, the theatrical move by some opposition groupings to challenge the constitutionality of a legislation enacted by the constitutionally elected representatives of the people is tantamount to challenging the authority of the very people they claim to be speaking for. Let’s take a look at the following pronouncement purportedly from one of the embattled opposition figures: “There is no doubt that the provisions in that constitution, which allow for democratisation, allow decentralisation of authority and also empower the people to have a say not only in elections but also management of affairs of the country.”

The tail end of the above quotation concisely justifies the move by the people’s representatives, which clearly reflect the wishes of the Gambian people; vis-a-vis, how they want the elections, and also management of the affairs of the nation. Suffice it to say that the National Assembly is an empowering tool of the people, as it is through it that they dictate the affairs of the nation.

Like it is expected of all democracies, there is absolutely no problem for a section of the society to hold opposing views. But it becomes perplexingly outrageous when one points to a problem they themselves are contributing to. Isn’t it ironical that a group of people filed an injunction to halt the forthcoming elections, questioning its constitutionality, even though they make no effort to hide their preparedness to take part in the same exercise? For God’s sake, something can not be wrong and correct at the same time.

In any case, the fact that we are not about to get a replica of that infamous election boycott leaves opposition supporters with something to celebrate, as it shows the effect of the lesson drawn from that inexperienced move by their leaders. And again, the credit is for Gambian democracy