Lamin Kaba Bajo became the new president of the Gambia Federation beating Buba Mbye Bojang 28 to 23 votes in a close contest Saturday, bringing another Fifa-sanctioned normalisation period to a close. A third candidate Omar Danso, who formed an alliance with Bojang, withdrew from the contest inside the election hall. All of Bajo’s vice presidential running mates Abdoulie ‘Star’ Jallow, Ebou Faye and Martin Gomez in that order were elected unopposed and so were the co-pted members.
The election which recorded a hundred percent turnout with all 51 electors present, was presided over by the chairman of the Normalisation Committee, Alhagie Sillah, who hailed both candidates for their cooperation in the entire process.
He reminded the audience that the election was “just a simple exercise” of determining who leads and therefore must not split the football family and urged them to remain united and work in unison.
The newly-elected president assured Gambians that with the elections over, ‘Team Kaba’, the tag given to his presidential campaign will be replaced with the Gambia Football Federation executive committee which he said is national in character.
Bajo who greeted his opponent with a warm handshake, said his leadership will reach out to Gambians such as Buba Bojang and many others to benefit from their ideas and contributions to the development of the game in The Gambia.
He also vowed to fully pursue and implement the vision and mission stipulated in his manifesto which covered wide ranging issues in Gambian football.
Mr Bajo extended gratitude to President Jammeh and the Gambia government for their continuous support and investment in football, noting that without that support very little would have been achieved.
The new president also noted the importance of Fifa and Caf describing them as critical stakeholders.
Buba Bojang, the defeated candidate, maintained his composure by stating that he has accepted the verdict of the Gambian football stakeholders. But he vowed to put the Kaba executive under close scrutiny to ensure that they implement what they promised in their manifesto. “This election found me in football and I shall remain in football. I have no intention of quitting the game,” he said.
The congress which attracted a full house of delegates, media and observers was chaired by Ba Jabbie, vice chairman of the Normalisation Committee.
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