By Omar Bah
The leader of the United Democratic Party, Ousainou Darboe has said that the recent success of the UDP at the polls showed that the Party has always been popular but had always been robbed of victory under the Jammeh regime.
Darboe who was speaking on GRTS said with the “advent of free and fair election process this time around, no one can rob us of our victory.”
Darboe further said there is great deal of optimism that Gambia will have a government that is purely UDP with this dominance.
On how UDP’s dominance is playing out within the Coalition, Darboe said the Coalition government is working very smoothly because there is no party politics when it comes to government.
“As far as governmental issues are concerned, we do not think partisan; we are focused on national issues on guiding the country to fix its broken institutions,” he stated.
He added: “We are set for a total transformation that will be consistent with President Adama Barrow’s policy on local government administration. We want to see that the councils and the municipalities cease to be attendees of any political party as it was under the APRC and we want to come to an end.”
Mr Darboe used the occasion to call on APRC militants and party sympathizers to stop meddling in the affairs of his party.
He said when the APRC were in power they used to celebrate their victories and the UDP has never interfered in their celebrations.
“So let them allow us to continue with our celebration and when they win, let them celebrate,” he said.
He said the UDP never had problem with any political party other than supporters of APRC around Talinding whom he alleged of interfering with his supporters’ victory celebrations.
“I believe when people are celebrating their victories, their opponents should allow those jubilations to go on without any problem,” he added.
On the landslide recorded by the UDP, Darboe said: “We feel really great and then we have to realise that this victory imposes a great deal of responsibility on our party because it indicates that the Gambian people have confidence and expectations on the UDP and we will try to live up to that responsibility. We got to this point because we are giving the right message to the people.”
Asked about his opinion on the three-year transition, Darboe said there is no member of the United Democratic Party who is saying President Adama Barrow should step down after three years.
“The position of the UDP is in line with the dictates of the constitution and I believe that should be the position of everyone,” he added.
