By Omar Bah
In its first reaction to the controversial 2024 draft constitution, the main opposition United Democratic Party UDP has said it considers the draft, recently gazetted by government, to be ‘unacceptable’ and should be withdrawn.
The party also accused Justice Minister Dawda Jallow of misleading Gambians over his comments on the draft constitution.
Last week, Minister Jallow appeared at a government press conference to react to concerns and criticisms over the numerous amendments made in the draft and argued that the changes are in the national interest and that there were consultations over it.
But the UDP said Minister Jallow’s comments regarding the consensus building on the 2020 draft constitution is “false and misleading”.
The full statement from the party reads:
“From the onset, the lack of political will to adopt the 2020 draft constitution and the efforts deployed to derail the people’s aspirations were spearheaded by none other than the president and the current minister of justice. It is important for Gambians to remember that it is indeed this same minister, who refused to speak to the 2020 draft when he tabled it at the National Assembly in September 2020. He followed that up by deliberately refusing to defend his own brief at the National Assembly because, cabinet, at the time, was unhappy with the term-limit provisions, among other provisions contained in the 2020 draft, which would have ensured that President Barrow, and any other presidents elected after him, could only serve for two terms.
That was the signal sent to the president’s allies in the National Assembly who all voted to kill the 2020 Draft Constitution even before it could make it to a second reading.
To ensure the success of their desire to kill the people’s draft, the executive induced certain members of the National Assembly to break camp with the UDP because the UDP insisted on subjecting the draft to the motions of the National Assembly. Subsequently, all the UDP NAMs voted for the 2020 draft constitution and all NPP NAMs (essentially, erstwhile UDP NAMs who defected to President Barrow) and their collaborators, voted against. It would be recalled that the neo NPP NAMs who lost their seats in the subsequent 2022 legislative elections, were rewarded with executive appointments and others became nominated NAMs in the current Sixth Legislature.
Thus, the failure of the 2020 draft rests squarely on President Barrow, his cabinet, and their allies in the National Assembly. The minister is thus reminded that Gambians would never forget this unforgivable betrayal by the Barrow administration and no amount of spinning could change the narrative or shift the blame for the failure to deliver on the Gambian people’s desire for a new constitution.
From the onset all stakeholders who participated in the consultations supported the resubmission of the 2020 draft to National Assembly. “Political party leaders and their representatives flagged the contentious issues in the 2020 draft and highlighted their concerns during the first phase of the meetings. Further consultations were recommended to bridge the gap among the political parties to achieve a compromise on the contentious issues.
During the Abuja retreat, the participants effectively reached a compromise on some of the contentious issues but failed to do so on others. For instance, on the issues of secularism, citizenship, confirmation by the National Assembly of the appointments of ministers, independence of the Office of the Inspector General of Police, and most importantly on the issue of term limits, no consensus was reached either in the first phase or the second phase of the consultations.
However, on issues such as qualification criteria for presidential candidates, a consensus was reached to lower the standard set in the 2020 draft. With regard to election of the Speaker, it was agreed that the 2020 draft did not make provision for the election of an ex-officio (a nominated member) as speaker. In view thereof, a general agreement was reached that it would be best to have an elected member of the National Assembly elevated to the rank of Speaker, following election by the NAMs. On the issue of nominated members, it was decided that the provisions of the 2020 draft should be maintained. On the election of Seyfolu, a consensus was reached that they should be elected. Regarding the budget of the Judiciary, the stakeholders agreed that the provision of the 2020 draft should be revisited.
The Attorney General’s statement that in Abuja “the revised draft had been circulated to the leaders of political parties and members of civil society for their information, review and any further input prior to gazetting” is false and misleading.
No revised draft was circulated in Abuja or in The Gambia for the input of the stakeholders. The UDP’s position has always been clear from the beginning. The Party insisted that the flagged contentious issues should be subsequently submitted to the National Assembly members for review at the committee stages of the National Assembly deliberations, when the draft is reintroduced. We would like to make it categorically clear that the UDP was not aware, did not agree to, and did not participate in the 2024 redrafting of the constitution.
What we find most strange and unbecoming in the 2024 draft is that certain changes made to the 2020 draft were never even discussed in any of the consultations. For instance, the deletion of Chapter V of the 2020 draft was never discussed or agreed upon. In the same vein, the reversal of the 48-hour maximum for police detention stipulated in 2020 draft, back to 72 hours in the 2024 Barrow/Dawda Jallow draft, was neither discussed nor agreed upon. UDP will never subscribe to the curtailing of people’s liberties. In fact, issues of fundamental human rights were never brought up for discussion at any of the meetings because there were no objections to the protective and progressive stipulations of the 2020 draft.
Contrary to its assertions, the Barrow administration did not revise the 2020 draft. Rather, it butchered the draft to expunge from it most of the points strongly advocated for by the Gambian people, including, inter alia, reduction of the monarchical powers of the president, executive accountability, free and compulsory education for all Gambians to secondary-school level, protection of the Gambian consumer, vetting of presidential appointments to ensure competence and autonomy of certain senior government officials etc.”
