Halifa
Sallah, leader of the Peoples’ Democratic Organisation for Independence and
Socialism (PDOIS), has said that The Gambia is far from achieving targets in
ensuring unity and progress.
Speaking
at a press briefing at his office in Churchill’s Town on Wednesday, he said
even though the leadership of the country has changed, there are lots more to
be decided.
Mr
Sallah, who is elected National Assembly member for Serrekunda Central, said
people must change for the aspired changes to be realised.
He
recollected that the agenda of forming the coalition government was to effect
change of government and elect parliament that would review existing laws and
make laws, which the government would implement presidential term limits, among
others.
“We
agreed in the beginning to elect a president that will not overstay, and after
serving three years such person will not contest the next election. This is
what Barrow agreed and was elected at the 1st December 2017 presidential
elections,” Sallah said.
According
to the new parliamentarian, the constitution requires the president to conduct
elections three months before the end of his term in office.
He
continued: “That was why Yahya Jammeh
stayed three months to prepare to leave after he was defeated in election. He first accepted defeat, but later rejected. This led to intervention of the international
community to ensure that Yahya Jammeh step down, and Barrow took over from him
on 19 January 2017.
“We
all agreed that President Adama Barrow be elected as an independent candidate
to lead the coalition and to elect independent candidates as National Assembly
members under the coalition government.
But some parties insist that they wanted to sustain their parties that
was why we contested under our individual parties, instead of contesting as
independent candidates under the coalition, as we agreed upon earlier.”
“Our
priority is building new foundation for The Gambia to ensure good governance,
respect for human rights. However, we
have not yet escape crisis. We have not
yet escape the past dilemmas considering the way things are moving.
“The
instruments for parliament are Standing Orders that should be built to ensure
transparency and accountability. There
need to be a legal person to help build the legal instruments. We need to
educate members of parliament on the laws to enable them sensitise the people. There is need to build trust among members to
avoid partisan interest to supersedes national interests.”
“The
majority in parliament is the UDP and they using partisan politics. It wouldn’t make difference with the APRC
government if they decide to be praise-singers only. We need to move from
self-perpetuated government to building Gambia for Gambians. What we want is
all Gambians to be winners.
“Our
hope is that the new beginning will lead to us to the Third Republic. However what we had was partisan campaigns as
the president went for campaign and some parties were using his image during
the campaigns.
“The
nation is still a divided nation.”
Hon.
Sallah, who was the coordinator of the coalition, explained that even though
UDP dominates in parliament that does not mean they carry weight more than the
rest of the parties in parliament as they do not form 2/3rd majority which is
needed for impeachment of president.
According
to Sallah, considering the percentages at constituency levels, UDP might win
the seats, but that does not mean they dominate results of all parties in a
particular constituency.
“It
is said that Gambia has decided, but Gambia has not decided because there are
still partisan politics. We are
demanding for equality, unity and work for a common good of the nation. As long
as that is not achieved we have not yet decided,” he said.
“Yesterday
we were called in parliament and there was no Speaker yet, the Chief Justice
stepped in, but he had to operate based on laws; parliament debate on the rules
and procedures.
He
recommended that parliament need to hire a legal person that will draft
legislative policy based on which the parliament operates.
