By Omar Bah
Ebrima Sorrie Bah, secretary general, Gambia For Five Years and Peace Building, has announced he formed a political party called Gambia Jamaa Party (GJP).
The Gambia For Five Years group, which is widely regarded as pro-government, was set up to counter the 3 Years Jotna movement which demanded President Barrow keep his transitional promise to step down from office at the end of three years.
The group though has maintained that it is apolitical and that it was motivated to defend the five-year constitutional mandate.
“I can confirm to you that I have formed a political party called Gambia Jamaa Party, with the symbol of a farming tractor bearing the overall objective of enhancing food security,” Ebrima Sorrie Bah told The Standard on Saturday.
He said his move is “a result of intense negotiations and appeal by thousands of Gambians all over the world.
“The Gambia Jamaa Party is mainly composed of peasant farmers, including women, youths and Gambians in the Diaspora who desperately desire for positive political change again in The Gambia,” he said.
Mr Bah vowed among other things to immediately undertake the mobilisation of political parties to come together in a formidable alliance to contest the December 4 presidential election.
“The Gambia Jamaa Party is very concern about the unabated increasing cost of living and inflation of the dalasi amid rampant corruption and the buying of political allegiance, otherwise political bullying in the country,” he said.
He said the country’s polarisation of traditional and public institutions in addition to the serious allegations of voter registration of foreigners is “a cause for concern for Gambia Jamaa Party”.
Bah added: “The socio-economic and political interest of the Gambian people is center stage in Gambia Jamaa Party manifesto”.
Asked if he has already registered the party, Bah said the party is at an advanced stage of its registration process with the Independent Electoral Commission as well as the election of an executive and identification of a flag bearer.
Life threats
Sorrie Bah said to form a party has not gone down well with some individuals who have started threatening him.
“I keep receiving threatening private telephone calls urging me to discontinue the registration of the party,” he claimed. He did not say which quarters of the political divide are the threats coming from.
The party executive committee, Bah added, “wish to seek the moral and financial support of all concerned Gambians. Together we can build a prosperous Gambia.”
