By Lamin Njie
The national chairman of the Gambia Democratic Congress, Dr Demba Sabally, has said that his party doesn’t want vice president Ousainou Darboe to be president of The Gambia.
Sabally speaking at a meeting held by GDC at the party’s bureau at Latrikunda Sabiji at the weekend said because of the hypocrisy within the United Democratic Party, the Gambia Democratic Congress neither wants Darboe nor any member of his party to lead The Gambia.
He said: “Today if Barrow resigns, for us we have asked a lot of people who are experts in the constitution. He (Barrow) will not be able to organise elections. He has only one power which is to resign and if he resigns, there is no elections in 90 days. God forbids if he dies today, it’s the speaker who can organise elections in 90 days but if resigns the one serving as vice president is the one who should complete the term. That is to say if the three years ends and Barrow resigns, the vice president there now Darboe will be the president for the remaining two years.
“For us at GDC, Barrow’s two years is better than Darboe’s two days as president. So before we say, ‘Barrow resign, Barrow resign’, for us as a party, what is our interest? If Barrow is there today, we don’t want that. We want Hon Kandeh to be there but for Barrow to resign, if we as a party do the pressuring until he resigns we will end up having Darboe.
“And Darboe and his party, the hypocricy that is in UDP, if that person becomes president for two years… And today IEC, you should know three people at IEC this year is there 13 years of service. At the end of this year, their 14 years would be complete. On the appointment of IEC commissioners, the act says seven years and there is automatic renewal for another seven years. So that makes it 14 years. When that finishes, the president can reappoint.
“In 2020, there are three commissioners including the chairman Momar Njie will be replaced. If we put pressure on Barrow for him to step down, in 2020 if Darboe becomes president, he will go ahead and appoint his own people and one among them will be the chairman of IEC.
“UDP today with their hypocrisy, if they control all of the government’s wealth, they control the security system, they become president, they become vice president, they appoint all IEC commissioners, appoint the IEC chairman, how can we as a party win?
“So anyone who says Barrow should resign… Left to me alone Hon Kandeh tomorrow will be the president. But whatever we do as a party, we should calculate our interest first. Because in as much as we don’t want Barrow there, but between Barrow and Darboe, Barrow can be there and after the end of five years we can go to elections. [That] is better than Darboe’s two days.
“To say that Barrow should step down now when there is no new constitution is a big gamble. I want people to understand this. For Barrow to be in power is not something we want but he’s the one God put there. But right now, for him to complete five years, we place more sense in that than Darboe spend two days there or anybody UDP member to spend two hours there.”
