By Seedy Jobe
The leader of the opposition United Democratic Party (UDP), Ousainu Darboe, said on Tuesday that his party is no longer participating in the opposition coalition initiative spearheaded by the Alliance for Democracy and Development (ADD), arguing that no formal letter of withdrawal is required because the UDP was never invited into the process by the coalition’s management committee.
Speaking at a press briefing, Mr. Darboe responded to comments by the chairman of the Coalition Mediation Committee (CMC), Professor Yero Mballow, who recently said the committee had not received an official withdrawal letter from the UDP and therefore continued to regard the party as part of the coalition process.
Mr. Darboe rejected that assertion, saying the UDP’s engagement began with an invitation from the ADD rather than from the CMC itself.
“The CMC never invited me or never invited UDP to the coalition talks. It is the ADD that invited us for a coalition talk. And the CMC, they were invited by ADD to be part of the process,” he said.
He maintained that any formal correspondence regarding the party’s withdrawal, if necessary, would be directed to ADD leader Essa Mbye Faal Camara, whom he thanked for inviting the UDP to participate in the discussions.
Mr. Darboe also cited comments made by coalition spokesperson Martin during an appearance on Coffee Time, in which he said political parties unwilling to accept the coalition’s proposed model “should go away.”
Darboe argued that those remarks effectively acknowledged the UDP’s departure from the initiative, given the party’s longstanding opposition to the coalition framework under discussion.
“When he said, ‘If those who do not accept this model should go away,’ and they know perfectly well that UDP does not accept that model, do we have to resign? Do we have to send any letter to them to resign? When you have already told us that you can go away if you do not accept it, do we have to tell them that we are going away?” he asked.
He reiterated that the UDP remains committed to what he described as a “party-led” approach and said the party’s position had been clearly outlined during Tuesday’s press conference.
Mr. Darboe added that any suggestion the UDP remains part of the coalition initiative solely because no formal withdrawal letter had been submitted was misplaced, insisting that the party had already made its position unequivocally clear.
Comments are closed.