By Makutu Manneh
Yankuba Darboe, a senior member of the United Democratic Party (UDP) and Chairman of the Brikama Area Council, has reiterated his position that any opposition coalition seeking to challenge the ruling National People’s Party (NPP) should be led by the UDP.
Speaking in an interview with QTV, Darboe argued that political influence and leadership within a coalition should be determined by electoral strength, emphasizing that the UDP’s support base significantly outweighs that of other opposition parties.
According to him, politics is fundamentally a numbers game, and parties with limited electoral support cannot expect to be placed on equal footing with a party that has consistently demonstrated its ability to attract hundreds of thousands of voters.
“Let us be serious: some of these people, if we say mobilize 1000 people, they will struggle to mobilize even 500 people. You cannot then say you are equal to a party that can bring 238,000 people or more,” Darboe said.
He pointed to the UDP’s performance in the West Coast Region chairmanship election, where the party defeated the NPP, as evidence of its political strength and national appeal. “That is a big party, not a small party,” he added.
Darboe further maintained that the UDP is one of the few political parties in The Gambia with the capacity to immediately assume the responsibilities of government. He asserted that the party has a sufficiently broad and qualified membership base to fill ministerial positions without relying on external support.
Responding to concerns that such a position could complicate efforts to build a united opposition front ahead of future elections, Darboe expressed confidence that a coalition would eventually emerge. However, he stressed that any such alliance would have to reflect the UDP’s dominant electoral standing.
“I think we will have a coalition and that coalition will be a UDP-led coalition, but that might be different from the coalition set up we are seeing at the moment,” he said.
His remarks come amid ongoing discussions among opposition parties about the possibility of forming a united front to challenge the incumbent government in future elections.
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