By Amadou Jadama
Lawyer Assan Martin has announced on Saturday that his team will be backing the Gambia Democratic Congress in the upcoming presidential election.
Addressing a news conference at YMCA, the lawyer said: “I hereby announce that I and Team Assan have committed to support Mamma Kandeh’s agenda/manifesto to bring mature and smart leadership to the Gambian people.
“We are also endorsing his candidature for the December presidential election. We will also engage and support his efforts to reach out to other political parties and stakeholders such as independent candidates to work in partnership for a national unity government. Finally, we believe that Kandeh as a working partner with other political parties/ independents will help us to save our sovereignty and give us a leader who can unify us beyond the current polarization we are experiencing with the Barrow administration,” Lawyer Martin said.
He said the country’s opposition parties should work together to unseat the current government “that has failed on its mandate to deliver on the reforms and to rebuild the failing institutions to deal with the 21st century challenges”.
“In today’s Gambia, we are witnessing a government that lacks vision and direction as to how to move this country to the next level. It is for these reasons that we as concern Gambians decided to engage political parties to raise beyond their party interest to help consolidate their efforts to usher in a new change and bring back sanity and restore our sovereignty,” he added.
He said APRC and GDC are still open to talks, to seal a deal depending on the meeting of their leadership.
“Also it is clear that the parties can re-engage at any time soon especially in the coming weeks.
Despite the difficult political situation and the emergence of several new parties, myself and two concerned Gambians invited some political parties to discuss the strategic need of coming together where most of the party’s representatives at the meeting subscribe to the idea of working to form an alliance leading to a national unity government. Almost all the parties present agreed to the need of joining forces and resources to help effect change on December 4th,” he said.
However, he added, “our subsequent meetings that took place on the 4th July, 2021 that some political parties raised the issue that they may need time to consult their party bases to decide the kind of alliance proposed”.
“At this point, I will reiterate that until today some political parties are still engaged in consultation with their partners. In trying to form an incredible alliance, but again, time is of essence,” he noted.
