By Omar Bah
The administrative secretary of the main opposition United Democratic Party, Alhagie Darboe, has said the ruling National People’s Party will not be able to derail his party from steamrolling to State House at the 2026 presidential election.
Addressing a meeting organised to welcome NPP’s Busumbala Constituency Chairman Buwa Fofana and other supporters of the ruling party to the UDP on Sunday, Alhagie Darboe said: “There is hope in 2026, and what is happening in Senegal should serve as a clear example to The Gambia. If Macky Sall cannot stop Ousmane Sonko, the NPP will not be able to stop the UDP in 2026. But I want to tell the NPP and its supporters not to worry about what a UDP government could mean to them. I want to urge them to relax and have a peaceful mind. You don’t need to worry because a UDP government will not go after the NPP. All we will see is The Gambia and its interests. We don’t have time to go after people.”
He said the UDP government will not engage in a vengeful settling of scores with its political adversaries.
An unusually forthright Alhagie Darboe told Buwa Fofana that his return to the UDP is incomplete unless he brings back the twelve UDP chairpersons and others he took away with him when he quit the party.
He exhorted his party rank and file members to welcome Buwa and the other decampers with “open arms and clean hearts”, saying the UDP needs the backing of all Gambians to rescue the country from the maladministration of the NPP government.
‘No leadership tussle’
Alhagie Darboe also addressed the elephant in the room. “I want to assure all Gambians that there are no petty talks, power struggles, or leadership crisis in the UDP. The party is intact because we are the most organised political party in this country. We have a UDP calendar, and all our programmes are based on that calendar; anything outside of that calendar is not sanctioned by the party. We have no crisis or issues that would warrant us selecting a flag-bearer or party leader in 2024. It is not on our calendar. There are no issues in the UDP, and the talks of coup are empty talks,” he said.
