By Makutu Manneh
A senior member of the National Democratic Party, a breakaway faction from the National People’s Party, said this week that his party’s push to unseat President Adama Barrow is quietly supported by figures within the government and the ruling establishment.
Lamin Touray, speaking on the program “Politic Kaacha,” asserted that some officials who remain publicly aligned with the president are privately assisting the National Democratic Party, or N.D.P., in its political organizing.“There are people still with the president, but they are secretly supporting and empowering us,” Mr. Touray said. “They are unable to come out in the open.”
He suggested that some of those sympathetic to his party’s cause may even maintain close proximity to Mr. Barrow, while opposing what he described as a potential third-term bid. Their motivation, he said, was not personal animus but a belief that the president should step aside.
Mr. Touray’s remarks underscore mounting tensions within the governing coalition as political maneuvering intensifies ahead of the next electoral cycle. The N.D.P. emerged as a splinter group from the N.P.P., reflecting internal disagreements over leadership and direction.
Mr. Touray also criticized the Independent Electoral Commission, accusing it of applying inconsistent standards to his party’s registration process. He said that when he helped gather voter data for the registration of the N.P.P., the process was completed in less than two months and without what he described as the current level of scrutiny.“It did not even take more than two months to register N.P.P., but N.D.P. is almost a year,” he said, adding that the commission had told them its procedures had since changed. “But NDP is almost a year. IEC told us they have changed their laws.”
Despite the delays, Mr. Touray said the N.D.P. intends to contest the next election regardless of whether it secures formal registration in time, noting that the country’s electoral framework allows individuals to run as independent candidates.
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