By Omar Bah
The outgoing co-chair of the Inter Party Committee has called on all political parties to stay united and always pursue dialogue and consultative means to address their differences.
Addressing party delegates at the validation of the IPC policy document bankrolled by NDI, the veteran politician said the effective utilisation of the Inter Party Committee would serve as a conflict resolution tool for political parties.
“We are convinced now that the IPC is ready to achieve its principle and spirit of uniting the Gambian people especially during the time of difficulties,” Sallah said.
He said the IPC was established on the premise of consolidating peace and serving as an oversight to hold government accountable.
“It is our desire that when we have the president on one side, we should have the opposition on the other side to hold the government to account and finally we felt that if we are to move forward, we need to consolidate our democracy through dialogue and a constructive conversation,” he said.
He urged political parties to continue to embrace and promote dialogue and consultation at all times to find solutions.
“We should all commit ourselves to ensuring that there is diversity and inclusion in our political landscape. We should ensure that women are equally represented in all facets of political leadership and decision-making bodies,” he said.
He added that the IPC should begin the process of planning how to accompany the constitutional drafting discussion and debate to ensure issues that are pertinent to the Gambian people are captured. “We should look at the issues of the simple majority and how do we guarantee involvement of women in the process especially at the level of representation. National security mechanism must be created to ensure that women would not be contesting just to lose so we should create a foundation through our own initiative to find a political system that will include all of us and exclude none,” he said.
Also addressing the meeting, the NDI program officer, Lala Touray said the policy document seeks equal participation in the country’s political structure. “The overall objective of inclusive participation in governance is to establish a structure that will facilitate women, youth and PWD’s leadership in a party’s decision-making and governance structure. This policy priority will increase the participation and influence of marginalized groups and ensure political parties to establish inclusive and gender sensitive guidelines for candidates,” she said.
