By Tabora Bojang
The Secretary General of the People’s Organisation for Independence and Socialism Suwaibou Touray has said his party will only go into a coalition with clear terms and conditions to avoid the fate of Coalition 2016.
“Gambians are yearning for an opposition coalition but they are also in a dilemma from the experience of how Coalition 2016 shattered,” Touray who was recently elected as the party’s secretary general, said in an interview with QTV.
According to him, coalitions are not necessarily meant for the long term, but it is often a strategy to solve a national crisis and disperse afterward.
“In our type of country, coalitions are meant to solve crises. When a crisis comes you come together, take over, resolve the crisis and disperse. Currently, we have a situation where Gambians are yearning for an opposition coalition and so any politician that is serious about change, will have to think in this direction,” he noted.
He averred that in this regard his party will be pursuing a coalition premised on clear terms and conditions that will prevent the president from doing as he or she wishes.
Touray said under such terms, all parties in the coalition will have their programmes fully captured in the coalition agreement.
“It should be a coalition that should decide the number of seats to be allocated to each party, instead waiting until after victory and then people start pushing and lobbying for positions,” he said .
The PDOIS leader said such a scenario creates confusion and to avoid that everything must be stipulated in black and white. He added that the coalition should also stipulate it programmes too, explaining what to do and how to do it. “We also don’t want a coalition where the incumbent can just come and after three months sack a minister from a coalition party and put somebody of his liking. That should be avoided. It should be put in such a way that when you appoint someone to be a minister, you can only remove him through parliamentary approval, after hearing what he or she has done wrong to justify the sacking,” he said.
He said any opposition coalition must put in place everything that will make it very difficult for any incumbent to come and do whatever he or she wants.
