Settling old scores? (The Gambia).

President Yahya Jammeh was re-elected in October despite concerns about a crackdown on the opposition and harassment of the media. Journalists, members of the opposition and even people perceived as opposition sympathisers were arrested and briefly held by police shortly after Jammeh's victory.

He won 52.9% of the vote to secure a second five-year term in office. His nearest rival and main opposition candidate, Oussainou Darboe, won 32% of the vote.

While there was heightened tension before the election, the polls marked a peaceful re-election of another former military leader. Jammeh stormed onto The Gambian political scene in a military coup on 22 July 1994 that ended the 29-year rule of Sir Dawda Jawara who had ruled the country since independence from Britain on 18 February 1965.

Voter turnout was high, with an estimated 80% of the country's 500,000 registered voters casting their ballots.

P.A Sagma, chairperson of the Commonwealth observer group, said he was impressed with the turnout. He confirmed that the people had waited patiently to exercise their right, and in the process strengthened democracy - a key objective of the Commonwealth.

This was the sixth general election in the country since independence. But none had been genuinely free and fair. The then ruling party jealously maintained its grip on power, using all the state's machinery, such as Radio Gambia and others, to guarantee its stay in office.

After seizing power in 1994, Jammeh set to work to rebuild the economy. Commissions of inquiry were set up to recover public assets from officials of the old regime who had plundered national resources. A new constitution, adopted by Gambians, came into force.

Since the coup of 1994, there has been noticeable improvement in the national infrastructure. A new airport, new roads, even a university (that the country did not have in all the 29 years of Jawara's government) have been built.

But Amnesty International has been very critical of Jammeh's human rights record, saying free speech has consistently come under pressure.

Shortly after his re-election, Jammeh fired a string of senior government officials accused of sympathising with the opposition or being inactive members of his ruling APRRC party.

Tombong Saidy, the director of the state-owned Radio Gambia, was sacked within weeks of the election. No explanation was given for his dismissal, although there is speculation that he may have been fired for giving airtime to the opposition.

Baboucar Gaye, the owner of the popular radio station, Citizen FM, was picked up by the National Intelligence Agency on charges of failing to pay his income tax of about US$5,000. Gaye described his arrest as an attempt to gag the private media. The owner of another radio station, George Christiansen, was also arrested on similar charges.

The opposition has accused Jammeh of settling old political scores through the indiscriminate arrests.

Two female permanent secretaries, Therese Drammeh (ministry of health) and Fatour Jallow (foreign affairs) have also been dismissed without explanation. Their husbands are believed to be opposition sympathisers.