By Makutu Manneh
Talks aimed at forming a single opposition coalition ahead of December’s presidential election have not fallen apart, according to the process’s original organizer, but have instead splintered into two separate groupings, each pursuing a different path to challenging President Adama Barrow.
Malick Camara, secretary general and party leader of the Alliance for Democracy and Development, who initiated the coalition talks, said in an interview on Kerr Fatou’s “Politic Kaacha” program that while the original goal of uniting the opposition under one banner now looks unlikely, negotiations remain active.
Mr. Camara said the parties involved have effectively divided along two lines: those favoring a coalition built around a single independent candidate and those favoring one led by a political party. The candidate-led group, he said, includes the Gambia Democratic Congress, the UNITE Party, APP-Sobeyaa, and several smaller political movements. He added that Papa Faal, another opposition figure involved in the talks, had not yet declared which camp he would join, saying he intended to align with whichever group emerged as the majority.
The party-led group, Mr. Camara said, consists of five parties: his own ADD, the United Democratic Party, the People’s Alliance Party, the People’s Progressive Party, and the Gambia Alliance for National Progress.
“So forming a coalition has not collapsed, although what we intended we cannot have that way, but there will be a coalition. There will be a coalition of party-led and candidate-led, respectively. So the intent gave birth to two coalitions,” he said.
Mr. Camara attributed the split largely to a lack of trust among the parties, along with unresolved disagreements and competing leadership ambitions. He said confidence in whoever ultimately leads any coalition arrangement was essential to its success.
He said coalition-building efforts were continuing, but acknowledged that they were now proceeding as two distinct tracks heading into the December election.
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