By Omar Bah
In rather dramatic tone, the spokesperson of the former ruling APRC, Seedy SK Njie has said that President Adama Barrow should serve for a full five-year term as mandated by the Gambian Constitution.
Speaking in an exclusive with The Standard, Seedy Njie said it does not matter whether there was an agreement signed among the Coalition partners.
“And since the Constitution states five years, President Barrow should follow the dictates of the Constitution and stay for five years in fulfillment of the country’s constitution,” he said.
However according to Mr Njie, if Barrow decides to resign after five years, for whatever reasons, then he has no problem with that.
Mr Njie further stressed that any decision taken by Barrow to leave after three years should just be voluntary and it is unquestionable for Gambians to force him to resign before the end of his term.
“I don’t know how his Coalition members intent to handle this, but to me he should be left alone to complete the five years. After that, he can decide whether he will contest again or not,” he added.
“I cannot speak on behalf of President Barrow. I am not his spokesperson but I think he is thinking about what to do already, so let us wait and see what will happen,” Njie said.
On his assessment of the last one-year of Barrow’s presidency, Njie noted: “That is for Gambians, especially those who voted for the Coalition to gauge. I can only speak on behalf of the APRC.
“But actually we have heard them say time after time that freedom of speech is one of their greatest achievements.”
Meanwhile, speaking on the APRC’s preparations ahead of the local government elections, Njie said the former ruling party is working progressively to ensure that they make some significant gains in the upcoming polls.
“The signs are very promising and hopefully we will make some important strives in the coming elections and possibly we will regain the Mayoral seat in KMC,” he said.
On the suspension of the permit of political parties, Mr Njie said constitutionally the police cannot suspend political activities in the country. “What they can do is to suspend the use of loud speaker or political activities that intrude on terrific, so on and so forth,” he said.
“But I must acknowledge that the police did actually reach out to all the political parties and we were promised that the suspension was just going to be temporary for them to bring the situation that was prevailing under control,” he explained.
