For the past 48 hours or so, speculations on the decampment of one of UDP’s kingpins to their bitterest political rivals, NPP, have topped political discussions off and online in The Gambia.
The sight of Alhaji Abdoulie Suku Singhateh at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Conference Centre on Tuesday, hobnobbing with NPP officials has given rise to frenzied speculations as to whether he has deserted the UDP, the party he has made his home since the ouster of the former ruling party, the APRC, for which he had served as a distinguished legislator for many terms.
The former member of the Ecowas Parliament has brushed aside reports of him jumping ship but what though makes the development weirder and more confounding is that the former Lower Baddidu representative could still not assuage the public confusion. Although neither the UDP nor the NPP have made any official statement on Mr Singhateh’s status, political hacks of both parties have been busy trying to outshout each other in a verbal tug-of-war.
Has Suku Singhateh gone or has he not gone is the question that no one could seem to confirm. The question is as grey as the NPP banner. But what is certain is that in the run-up to the December presidential election, many political goalposts will be shifted. And it is quite obvious that the election will be a two-horse race between the NPP and the UDP. Who wins in this game of political calculus is anyone’s guess.
