The
flagbearer of the Coalition of seven opposition parties, Adama Barrow, will
appear at the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) today, Wednesday, for
nomination as a presidential candidate for the first time.
According
to the official version, Mr Barrow was born on 16 February 1965 in Basse. He was born in the same year as President
Yahya Jammeh and Mamma Kandeh.
Mr
Barrow, married with two wives and five children, is a businessman.
He
did his primary school education at Koba Kunda Primary School, and then in 1981
he proceeded to Crab Island Secondary Technical School, where he sat to the
Secondary School Leaving Certificate Examinations.
From
Crab Island, he proceeded to Muslim High School from 1985 to 1988.
After
his school life, Barrow spent most of his adult life in Banjul under the
guardianship of the late Alhaji Musa Njie, businessman, who introduced him to
business.
Barrow
whose hobbies include travelling and reading, especially newspapers, has
extensively travelled in England and Germany.
His
political career started with the formation of the UDP in 1996. He was an ordinary, but vocal member of the
party in his native constituency of Jimara, Upper River Region (URR).
In
2010, he was appointed coordinator of the UDP URR committee by the party’s
national executive. In 2006, he was
appointed deputy treasurer to the national executive committee.
For
the past three years, he has been the acting treasurer of the party. He became the leader of UDP on 1 September
2016.
He
was the UDP’s contestant for the 2007 National Assembly election in his native
Jimara consistency. He lost to Mamma
Kandeh, leader of the Gambia Democratic Congress (GDC), who was contesting for
the ruling APRC party at the time. Mr
Barrow obtained 2,835 votes, Kandeh 4,067 votes.
As
a football fan, he supports Wallidan FC in The Gambia and Arsenal in
international football. During his
school days, he was a goalkeeper.
