Halifa Sallah has reacted positively to the idea of a coalition of opposition parties to challenge the governing National People’s Party (NPP) grand coalition in next year’s presidential election, but said he cannot outrightly say whether PDOIS will join a coalition.
“I cannot say whether PDOIS will enter a coalition or not as we have yet to go to the congress because that is where it [coalition issue] has to be discussed. But my position is towards that direction [coalition],” Hon. Sallah said in an interview with Star FM’s Pa Nderry Touray broadcast on Monday.
It would be recalled that the leader of the UDP Lawyer Ousainou Darboe earlier last week told Coffee Time With Peter Gomez that he was on the cusp of engaging the GDC, PDOIS, Essa Faal, Ebrima Tabora Manneh and all other political parties and entities that were here before the 2021 presidential election and shortly afterwards on the issue of coalition to oust the NPP administration next year.
In what some may say chimes with Hon. Darboe’s plan, the Sallah said though PDOIS is currently preoccupied with party strengthening, it’s not lost on it that it can institute a system change through political collaboration.
“At the moment, our focus is to consolidate PDOIS but also having in mind that to change the governance system, we can work alongside others,” Sallah said in his Star FM interview.
He continued: “That’s why I said, as a member of PDOIS, there is a paper that I will present to the congress so that they [delegates] can assess that paper. I am talking about Team Gambia; those who rise above party biases.
We are looking at Gambians, who are well-educated, well-experienced and patriotic through and through so that all of them can come together to salvage The Gambia. I can guarantee you that that is something I will talk about so that it can be a pathway to a coalition that will be free of deception because the coalition partners will fully understand that their objective of coming together is to rescue the country, they are not coalescing to share the country among themselves with this one having a ministerial position there so that the rest of the citizens are deprived of their peace and development.”
