By Seedy Jobe
The United Democratic Party (UDP) announced Tuesday that it has withdrawn from ongoing opposition coalition negotiations, citing irreconcilable differences over the structure of the proposed alliance, and said it has begun forming a new coalition that it expects other political parties to join.
The announcement was made during a press conference in Banjul, where the party formally outlined its reasons for ending its participation in months of coalition discussions ahead of The Gambia’s December 5, 2026, presidential election.
Lamin Manneh, the UDP’s Deputy Senior Administrative Secretary for External Affairs, said the party entered the negotiations on the understanding that the coalition would be party-led, with each participating party retaining its identity while endorsing a common program. Under that arrangement, he said, UDP leader Ousainou Darboe would have led the alliance while remaining the party’s leader.
According to Mr. Manneh, that understanding later gave way to a proposal for a candidate-led coalition, under which the selected presidential candidate would resign from his or her political party to contest as an independent coalition flag bearer. He said the shift was inconsistent with the mandate the UDP had given its negotiating team.
“We went back to our party and informed them that the authority you gave us and what these people are discussing are different,” Mr. Manneh said. “If you don’t know where you are going, you go back to where you came from.”
He said the party had formally resolved to withdraw from the negotiations and would communicate that decision in writing to the coalition.
Mr. Manneh also accused coalition spokesperson Lawyer Assan Martin of abandoning his role as a neutral facilitator during the negotiations. He alleged that Mr. Martin had moved from mediating discussions to advocating positions that were unfavorable to the UDP.
Recounting one exchange, Mr. Manneh alleged that Mr. Martin told him, Lare Ceesay, and two other participants that coalition negotiations were progressing well but that the “Darboe factor” had to be addressed by persuading Mr. Darboe to step aside so another individual could lead the alliance.
“I told him, ‘Are you okay? Our party leader is Ousainu Darboe. Our flag bearer is Ousainu Darboe. If anybody doesn’t want that, they should go and look for something else,'” Mr. Manneh said.
Mr. Manneh argued that the candidate-led model carried significant political risks, pointing to the events surrounding the 2016 presidential election, when Adama Barrow resigned from the UDP to contest as the opposition coalition’s candidate before later establishing the National People’s Party.
Despite withdrawing from the current negotiations, Mr. Manneh said the UDP remains committed to building a broad opposition alliance ahead of the presidential election.
“We are building our own coalition right now,” he said. “We have already started, and you will see parties coming to join us.”
The announcement marks a significant shift in the opposition’s efforts to unite behind a single presidential candidate, raising fresh questions about whether a consensus alliance can be achieved before voters head to the polls later this year.
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