In his first interview since his party’s landslide victory in the National Assembly election, the leader of the United Democratic Party UDP, Lawyer Ousainou Darboe said yesterday that the policies and quality of the party’s message made their candidates acceptable to the electorate all over the country. The UDP won with 31 out of 53 seats across the country.
Mr Darboe, who seemed very confident about the future in the wake of the victory, urged Gambians to get prepared for the forthcoming Local Government Election slated for April 2018.
“This is the democracy we all desire where people will make a choice of their own not to be intimidated by anybody.”
He expressed his delight about young people’s participation in politics. “All the National Assembly Members except one or two are very young and we are expected to relinquish the mantle of leadership to these young people at some point,” Darboe said.
He added that there is in fact a large pool of competent, capable and patriotic members of the UDP who can take over the leadership of the UDP in the future.
“I always tell the young people that at some point we have to hand over the baton to those behind us and since we don’t want the party to fall, we want the youths to take over the leadership of the party and inject new and progressive ideas,” Darboe explained.
The UDP leader reiterated his calls to those in the opposition APRC and others to come to the UDP. “We have an open door policy. The founding members of the party and those who now will be accorded with the same treatment,” he said.
