By Alagie Manneh
The U.S government said it is encouraged by recent statements of Gambia government officials to regenerate discussions around the defeated draft constitution with a view to reintroducing it.
“[But] I commend the Constitutional Review Commission who undertook a comprehensive effort to engage with Gambians across the country and in the Diaspora to understand from them what their concerns were, what their specific concerns about the 1997 constitution were, and what the aspirations of Gambians are for constitutional rights that uphold their democratic ideals,” US Ambassador to The Gambia, Richard ‘Carl’ Paschall told The Standard.
A draft constitution to replace the 1997 constitution was sensationally rejected by lawmakers, amid an outpour of anger and consternation.
And Ambassador Pachall observed clamouring talks of reintroducing the defeated national instrument represent the ‘depth of disappointment’ among Gambians. He said the idea is welcomed.
“…Given the fact that there is discussion of how to reintroduce the constitution for legal and lawful debate, again, I think that demonstrates the depth of disappointment of Gambians. And I think that’s obviously something that politicians and elected officials have paid attention to, otherwise they wouldn’t be talking about how to reintroduce the draft constitution for further debates and eventually get it back to a referendum,” Mr Paschall said.
It is not clear whether government intends to reintroduce the draft unchanged, however, opposition politicians have already warned against voting “if even a dot is changed”.
“The timing of that [the reintroducing of the draft] is a question,” Ambassador added. “There are so many other things on the calendar for the government of The Gambia to include obviously a voter registration drive that starts in January, preparations for elections under the provisions of the ’97 constitution, TRRC and its final report, Security Sector Reform. Just a wide variety. The depth and breadth of reform is really unprecedented especially for a small country with a small government. There’s just a lot that the government is trying to accomplish within such period of time.”
Speaking further, Mr Paschall said in any democracy, it is the elected reps and the legislature that are the voice of the people in government.
Meeting Barrow
In September this year, the EU, US, UK and German missions made a request on the day of the draft vote to meet Barrow in a bid to push him “help influence the eventual outcome of the votes”. The request was swiftly rejected, according to EU ambassador Attila Lajos. However, ambassador Paschall said the intention was never to meet Barrow.
“I want to ensure that it’s clear that the statement that we issued with the UK High Commission, EU and German Embassy, the intent was to encourage the National Assembly members. It was not aimed really at the president. It was more aimed at the National Assembly. In our engagements, over the past several years, we hear from Gambians from all parts of The Gambia about their desire to see a new constitution. They understand that the ’97 constitution has been amended, that it does not necessary advance their interests… So, we wanted to encourage National Assembly Members to put it to the Gambian people [through a referendum] themselves to make that decision. I think this [the defeat of the draft] was a display of political interest that came out at least in so far as it appears from the various statements from various parties that voted… however they voted, and some very specific interest among different parties and different groups of people that they had with regard to the draft new constitution,” Mr Paschall said.
The US top diplomat was speaking to The Standard ahead of the elections in Amercia a week ago.
